My rental kitchen transformation
With sources!
Hello and welcome to the first interior before-and-after of my Boston city apartment.
The first winter we lived in our apartment, I redecorated the living/dining space and the kitchen. I got a lot done in a short period of time and sort of burned out on DIY, and it was a long while before I worked on another space. As a result, we’re currently living with an 80% finished bathroom, a 50% finished study, a 65% finished hallway, and a 0% finished bedroom.
But let me back up.
My husband and I live in Boston’s historic South End, where nearly every block is made up of a long row of brick townhouses, all pretty much identical. Truly: they’re all the same height, the windows are in the same places, the front gardens are all the same size and all have an urn in the center.
It’s very pretty and visually soothing, and movies about historic New York get filmed here because the South End hasn’t changed much in over 150 years while Manhattan clearly has. I adore our neighborhood and could go on about why it’s so nice to live here, but this is a post about the inside, not the outside!
So. Because of the townhouse format, you either live on one floor or two floors, or if you’ve done extremely well in life, three or more floors. We live on one. It’s a 2-bed, 1-bath and we’re lucky it has a really intelligent and livable layout.
It was in great condition when we moved in, and fortunately has great bones, but needed some sprucing up and personalizing all the same.
A few thoughts about making changes to rentals
This could honestly be a post of its own, and maybe I’ll eventually write one.
I always make some improvements to my rentals, but I’ve never done as much work on one as I have on this one. Mostly because I haven’t seen previous apartments as long-term homes, while we always knew we would land here for a minimum of three years.
Because we’re renters, it’s harder psychologically to put down roots in a space. In the back of your mind, you know it’s temporary and you don’t have total control over your fate there. The landlord could sell the building. Or drastically raise the rent. You’re at their mercy.
But both my husband and I are deeply house people. We’re really affected by our living environment and we crave stability, connection to place, and a sense of ownership. So even though we don’t have actual ownership in Boston, making modifications to the apartment helps us feel more invested in it. Sweat equity, if you will.
If any landlords out there are breaking a sweat reading this, don’t worry. I’m not taking out any walls. I always ask permission to paint and anything else I do is easily reversible—and I always do the reversing before moving out, unless the landlord tells me to leave it.
But here’s the thing: they always tell me to leave it. The changes I make add value to their property. The next tenant will like how it looks/works, and the landlord knows it. We have a really positive relationship with our current landlord, who actually lives on other floors of the house. And when he saw what I did with the kitchen, bold as it was, he loved it.
So if you’re thinking that you can’t make a home your own until you’re a homeowner, in this series as I share our apartment, I’m going to point out a lot of small changes you can make with as little as a screwdriver and some creative problem-solving.
Would you / have you ever made significant changes to a rental? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
The rental kitchen, before
This is what our Boston kitchen looked like when we moved in. Not bad, to be honest. The blinds were dusty beyond saving, but everything else just needed a deep clean.
Once we filled it with our stuff, it was a pretty cute white kitchen. Perfectly serviceable. The addition of the wicker table helped a lot by giving us extra storage and a surface for the coffee station.
Then, the addition of a cheerful gingham rug went a long way towards giving it more personality.
Sources: The rug is from Heather Taylor Home’s collaboration with West Elm. While it’s no longer available, here’s something similar. And there are a lot of other cute things in the HTH for WE collection still for sale.
The inspiration
I wanted the kitchen to feel happy, timeless, welcoming, and calm—a room that makes you smile every time you walk into it and where you can start and end your day on a positive note.
Our kitchen isn’t very big, and yet we spend a ton of time in there, so it needed to be especially pleasant. The function wasn’t changing (again, as a renter, it’s not like I’m switching out appliances) so I mainly had aesthetic considerations.
I was definitely inspired by my strongest source of design inspiration—French country houses—but we’re in the city in New England USA, and I wanted the kitchen to have a distinctive sense of place, and fit within the rest of the house. Speaking of the rest of the house, my husband and I are both most comfortable living in traditional-style interiors, so that played into our choices.
I considered blue cabinetry, but ultimately settled on green. The primary reason is that our countertops and floors are reddish-brown, and green would complement them in a way that would make them seem like an intentional choice, rather than something I don't love but have to live with.
I considered a lot of greens from the Farrow & Ball color palette, and landed on Breakfast Room Green as just the right shade without being too minty. Even the name felt right for a kitchen! It also pairs well with the wall and trim colors (Schoolhouse White for the walls and Wimborne White for the trim) that we carried through the next room, our living/dining room.
The rental kitchen, during
I did all the painting myself and was very motivated to get it done quickly. I took all the doors off the cabinets and painted both sides with one coat of primer and two coats of paint.
I did the walls and window/baseboard trim at the same time (and a mirror for the living room, as you can see). Since the brick behind the stove was already painted, I painted it the wall color for consistency.
I also removed the blinds and vent cover because I knew I’d be replacing those.
I was very tired by the point of putting the doors back on… lol.
…And the first new knobs I chose didn’t work out at all. They were impossible to grip and designed for a much smaller, lighter door or drawer. It’s for the best; now I think they’re too matchy with the plates on the wall.
Naturally, they weren’t returnable either, but a few have found happy homes on Ikea storage cabinets in another room.
This isn’t the best photo of the backsplash below, but I wanted a subway tile look while being completely removable. I found this really cool stick-on product (yep!) from Smart Tiles. You type in the dimensions of what you need to cover and they calculate how many stickers you need. I chose the Subway Norden color because the “grout” is light grey, which seemed more real looking than Subway White which had white “grout” and was too uniform. They have a ton of colors and styles, but I believe that when you’re cutting a corner on something, the simpler the better so it doesn’t draw attention.
After my landlord saw the “tile,” I rushed to explain that I could take it off when we left, and he said, “Or… you could leave it!” Further proving my point that changing your rental adds value to the property.
The rental kitchen, after
And here’s what it looks like today! In all its imperfect, but in my humble opinion, adorable glory.
The other changes that I didn’t mention above are matchstick blinds (currently 25% off) from Blinds.com, brass “beehive” knobs from Etsy, and a polished nickel faucet from Signature Hardware that my husband was kind enough to install because I don’t touch plumbing. We already have under-counter lighting, but if we didn’t, I would have added it because that’s my favorite way to light a kitchen.
Some of the paint is chipped because I was a little impatient and not careful enough putting the cupboard doors back on, but I couldn’t be bothered to touch it up before photographing. Real life, right? Some rainy day I’ll get around to fixing it.
Et voilà! We love it. Our landlord loves it. Let me know what you think, unless you hate it. Then keep it to yourself. ;)
Bonus: A few peeks inside the cupboards
There’s something very confronting about living with the doors off your kitchen cupboards for a week or so! That experience motivated me to invest some time and thought into organization behind closed doors.
Under the sink
Sources: Clear plastic caddy, over-door organizer, and clear under-sink mat from The Container Store. Wooden dish brush from Homesong Market, natural sponges from Amazon.
In the drawers
Sources: Clear organizers from the Container Store. Cutlery from Glazebrook UK. (The specific set is called Dishwasher Safe Old English Stainless Steel with Cream Handle Curved Blade Knives.)
Upper cabinets
Sources: Nantucket Basket 16-piece set, creamer, sugar bowl, teapot, pasta bowls, rim soup bowls, covered vegetable, serving bowl, and oval serving platter from Wedgwood. The floral platter is from my grandma.
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Recs for your week
Reading: The Interior Design Handbook by Frida Ramstedt
My husband bought this book recently and it is a treasure. As a total amateur in all things home design, I’d been searching for a book that takes complex concepts back to first principles and explains them to you like you’re four years old. This is that book and I’ve been devouring it.
Watching: The coronation of King Charles
I absolutely woke up at 6 on a Saturday morning to livestream the coronation of a king of a country my country famously didn’t want to be ruled by. Jokes aside, I found it really moving to watch the coronation service itself and exciting to see all the ceremony and display afterwards. Kate and Charlotte’s floral headpieces were the sartorial highlight for me.
Making: Scones, per the coronation of it all
Everything I cooked this past week was unfortunately mediocre. So instead, I’m sharing, with permission, a tried and tested scone recipe from a dear friend. I had all the best intentions of baking these on Saturday morning, but it turns out that I don’t have a lot of motivation at 6 am. I will make them soon!
Listening: Elizabeth Day on the Wellness With Ella podcast
I found the discussion about the evolution from your 20s to your 30s so relatable, plus so many other topics Ella and Elizabeth cover. The quote below describes exactly how I felt after college graduation, and though Elizabeth found her way back to herself on a very different path from my own, I found myself nodding along.
“Quite early on, I realized that in order to get teachers’ approval, I should work hard and do well at exams if I possibly could. And then that became this cycle of being incredibly conscientious and well-behaved, and getting appropriately good results, and being rewarded in some way for it, so I carried that mindset through school and into university. And then after university, you’re launched into this adult world where there are no exams you can sit to show that you’re doing a good job being a grown-up. And suddenly, the cycle of effort and reward that I had found myself in wasn’t working in the same way.”
Wow. Yes.
Doing: Sitting in the steam room 2-3x per week
Sort of mundane, but I only share what I actually do, and a lot of that isn’t very exciting! I’m still drawing and walking and other stuff from previous newsletters. But over the last few weeks, I’ve taken 15 minutes between every gym workout and shower to sit in the steam room. One benefit is that my skin seems to love it. The other is that it forces me to sit still and do nothing without my phone.
Whew, I’ve been looking at the screen for ages and need to go get groceries, so that’s all for today. Let me know if you’d like to see more on the rental decoration topic, and leave a comment if you have any questions or want a source for any product that I didn’t link above. Have a great week!
xx Jane
This newsletter includes a few affiliate links. I like to shop small and don’t exclusively feature brands that are part of an affiliate program, so not all links will earn me a commission. But some will! If you plan to buy something featured in this newsletter, using my link will help support the time and love I put into writing these for you. I appreciate your support so much!
I love it. I can’t get over how it looks with your china.
Lovely kitchen - You are so Talented💚🤍💙