Before & After: Striking Green Cabinets and Pink Backsplash Bring Life to This “Bland” Kitchen

Kitchens are often the hub of the home — and because it fosters such important culinary and personal moments, it’s a bonus if the aesthetics match the energy of the space. And it’s even better if you can make the room feel happy and light without minimal effort. Enter: the kitchen in art director and self-proclaimed home decor and DIY aficionado Juliana’s modern LA rental loft. The room is narrow, and the cabinets extend to the eight-foot ceiling. But when she moved in, the kitchen was all white, which didn’t flow with the rest of the apartment. 

“I wanted to bring in some color that would match the vibe of the apartment without making the kitchen look smaller or busy,” Juliana wrote. “It was important to pick a color scheme that I wouldn’t easily get tired of, as I don’t like painting at alllllll.” And that’s exactly what she did.

It’s not just that Juliana wanted ease when it came to updating her kitchen — she also needed to find renter-friendly solutions that could be easily changed. She loves shades of blush and green, so she picked Behr’s “Moss Mist” for the cabinet color (and swapped in new hardware from IKEA), and found an easily removable way to incorporate pink into the space. 

“To keep it renter-friendly, I applied contact paper to the backsplash so I can peel it all off once I leave the apartment,” Juliana says. “I also used some tiles I had from a previous project and chose to place them vertically for cosmetic purposes as well as to make sure the tile weight is distributed more evenly on the contact paper.”

Rather than using grout and tile adhesive, Juliana applied the tiles using liquid nails, which allowed her to use less of the product to keep the tiles up and is “waaaay less messy than the usual tiling process,” she writes. 

Juliana admits she’s not much of a chef but notes that kitchens are “high-traffic areas.” So, it’s a bonus that her kitchen updates encourage her to be in the room more. “I love that from the dining room, the kitchen looks like a fun, inspiring little space rather than something to be hidden from guests,” Juliana said. “Though it’s small, my kitchen really inspires me to at least try to cook every once in a while.”

If you love the serene look of Juliana’s kitchen, you’ll want to tour the rest of her sun-drenched Los Angeles loft. Visit Apartment Therapy to see the full home tour. 

Buy: Bedrosians Makoto 2.5″ x 10″ Ceramic Tile, $10.19/square foot