3 Rules for Tricking Out Your Rental Kitchen
Fixing up any space in your home is a challenge, but this is especially true when you’re working with a space, like your kitchen, which needs to be functional. Layer on the fact that your kitchen isn’t your forever kitchen and you may feel like tearing your hair out. Don’t do it! Instead, take a deep breath and follow these rules for making over your rental kitchen.
1. Display your best stuff.
“Focus on the pieces you have,” advises Megan Hopp, a designer for Homepolish. Your belongings are the things that are in your control — and that you’ll take with you when you move. So don’t hide them inside cabinets you don’t like the look of. To show off what you’ve got, “hang mugs from hooks on the wall; take the doors off your cabinets; and add more shelving,” she suggests. IKEA and CB2 have great, affordable options.
2. Pick a color palette.
An easy way to make a design statement is to focus in on one or two colors. Hopp suggests black and white, but why not opt for something cheerier? Yellow, perhaps, or bright blue. Shades of gray are always sophisticated.
3. Go for the unexpected.
A final tip when it comes to sprucing up your rental kitchen: Incorporate things that you might think don’t belong in the kitchen. “I love to put mirrors in my kitchen,” says Hopp. And your shelves aren’t just for cookbooks and cookware: Mix and match dinner plates, books, and picture frames with your kitchen essentials.