Here we are, the second Tuesday of 2012.
I hope you all havin’ a great day
This is part 2 of “Love Your Rental”…
Welcome to my humble kitchen. As you can see from the picture, it’s a pretty tiny one. Not quite the kitchen of my dreams, but none the less, my kitchen and many good times start in this room. Right off the bat I knew that storage was going to be a major issue. I have to confess… I am completely addicted to and absolutely in love with serving ware. Thus, the problem is ALWAYS storage. Because we rent there is no way that we we’re going to invest any money into remodeling the kitchen. My solution was to add the long white cabinet under the window. It holds all of my cookbooks and any extra cook ware that I couldn’t fit into the existing cabinets. It also doubles as extra counter space (another thing that is extremely scarce in this kitchen) for my small appliances. The wonderful thing about this piece is that it can go with us where ever we move. I can use it for what ever our home calls for, No money wasted here!
I also made the board mounted valances to help detract from the dated scalloped wood framing around the windows. I will for sure be doing a write up later on window treatments in this series.
When we moved into our home the fridge was where my “pear artwork” is now. The intended space allotted for the fridge was very small. No way I could live with such a tiny ice box. I had my sister in law (who just so happens to be a very handy architect) shorten the length of the cabinets over the fridge. This allowed us to put in a “normal” size refrigerator. I highly suggest getting your landlords approval, even though I did not, before doing any “improvements”.
Another thing that HAD to be changed when we moved in was the inside of the cabinets. They were mauve! Yep, you read right, the inside of the cabinets were mauve. That was one of the 1st projects that had to be tackled. Not only we’re they mauve, but the paint was an oil base paint. So they we’re a shiny mauve. Just in case you’re not familiar with painting…if you’re going to paint over oil base paint you MUST use an oil base paint too! If not, your new color will peal right off.
I also lined the cabinet shelves with a “rubber like” liner. It makes cabinets feel much cleaner. It also adds some interest to the inside of the cabinets. I chose a black and white plaid to coordinate with my kitchen decor. Having a small kitchen it’s nice to expand the design as far as you can go. It’s very easy to install. You simply measure your shelves and cut the liner with a regular pair of scissors to fit. Perfect fit.
These small “upgrades” made my kitchen manageable, so that I could move on to other areas in my home where I would have more control over the design. That’s a big part of it when it comes to turning your rental into your home. You have to “pick you battles”. You can’t change everything, but you can do a lot.
Until next time… Love your rental!!!
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