apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

My kitchen in my rental is itty bitty. If I were going to fix it, it would need to have a couple walls knocked out to make it worthwhile. I'm not thinking the condo association that owns it would go for that.....

We moved into a new rental last summer. We got a deal on the rent because we agreed with the landlord that we would fix it up, as opposed to him renovating an apartment that had been untouched in 10 years.

It was hard but we laid laminate flooring, ripped out the old cabinets, painted the walls and installed a new stove and shelves. Now it is near perfect for us. I have found that our landlord doesn't care what we do so long as it doesn't cost him anything.

I'd love to paint our cabinets--we moved in six months ago and will probably be here at least a few years. Our kitchen is super dark, with dark cabinets, dark floors, and little sun through the window (it faces south and is very close to the house next door). But that just seems like so much work, especially since it doesn't bother me too much. The bathroom, on the other hand...

God I hate our countertops but there is no way our landlord will go for ANY change. Paint and putting up a clock are already controversial. This is one rental that is probably always going to feel like a rental.

Their kitchen was one of the first things I fell in love with on this site. A little jewel!

I know my place would be gutted and renovated if I ever moved, so I did some DIY renovations on the cheap. I put down vinyl stick tiles on the floor on top of the existing tiles - I "retiled" the countertops, also with vinyl stick tiles cut to 1" square and grouted and coated, it looks like real tile. I painted the walls a vivid color, and added shelving and a hanging rail - it looks GREAT and it all cost about $600. I didn't do anything to the cabinets though.

I ripped out the sad vinyl flooring one day without much of a plan. I ended up just painting the subfloor, which looks alright, until I can save up enough for some marmoleum or cork. I happen to have perfectly acceptable granite countertops and dark wood cabinets, but I wouldn't hesitate to replace them if I wanted to and had the money. Or the sink; I'd replace the sink. But I'm in a long-term rental with very hands-off landlords.

jblue - good thinking on the countertops!

I've got boring white fridge & white cupboard. So I bought 1 rolls of black contact stickers from dollar store. Cut a pattern in manners of dairy cow. Moo... It is really cheap way to transform a boring place, and I think milk taste better in my kitchen.

In Australia you can't touch a thing in a rental pretty much and most land lords won't let you if you ask. For this reason I picked a place to rent that had a good kitchen already. It isn't the kitchen that I would have if I owned the place but it is better than 90% of the places we looked it.

You can't renovate rental properties without permission in New Zealand either. Our kitchen looks sad, but oh well. I've got art up and cute things on the windowsill and dining table and that's about as far as I can go.

i like my kitchen overall but there are some things i would love to do: paint the walls (of course), replace the white horrid laminate counter top with butcher block, & put up a shelf. I'd really love a hoosier cabinet too!

You can't do anything to rentals properties here in the UK either. Our kitchen is completely tiled with white tiles with a yellowish/terracota marbling effact, with the odd bit of gold trim thrown in for good measure - what I wouldn't do to not have to look at them every day!

I'm seriously considering changing the blinds though - that's about as brave as you can get here! Even the fridge is the Landlord's - it needs replacing, but it'll be a fight with the letting agent to get it done.

I have painted, swapped out cabinet hardware, and hung new light fixtures (which I took with me when I moved out). I really couldn't justify the expense of doing much more... with as much as I pay for rent, it feels like any improvements are just handing even more money to the landlord.

Honestly, I couldn't and wouldn't really spend more on a rental kitchen than I already have. My current kitchen is small so I added some off the counter storage and organization for the pantry as well as changed out old contact paper. That's about as far as I'll go, and i'll be taking it all (except the contact paper of course) with me when I go. When choosing an apartment I took the kitchen into consideration, and as long as I had a gas stove and a little bit of counter space I'm happy. I wouldn't want to own the apartment as a condo with a kitchen that small, but it's fine as a rental. I definitely steered clear of rentals with nasty, dark, reallllly tiny kitchens, etc. I'd rather pay a little more in rent than take the time to make major changes myself.