home improvement | transforming an apartment kitchen

Even if you?re living in an apartment, you want your kitchen to be functional, organized and stylish. While you may not be able or willing to make permanent changes here are a few inexpensive and creative home improvement tricks to make your kitchen feel more efficient and chic.

First off, talk to your landlord before getting started; you don?t want to make any changes that could interfere with your lease agreement. There may be rules about what you can or cannot do or there may be specific plumbers, painters or other contractors that you must work with. In some cases, you may be able to make a case for the improvement being a permanent upgrade and have them pay for some or all of the work.

1. If you plan on staying in the apartment for a long time, why not invest in a new faucet and taps? This is an excellent way to modernize your kitchen and move away from the standard, boring apartment faucet. You just have to make sure that the fixtures you choose have the same layout and spread as your current ones. Your landlord will likely require that you have the fixtures replaced by a professional plumbing contractor, so be prepared for the small extra expense.

2. Change out the archaic light fixtures. There might not be much you can do about bulky fluorescent light fixtures but ugly pendant lights, chandeliers or flush fixtures can usually be replaced fairly inexpensively with new fixtures from wholesale or large home improvement stores. Hire an electrician to deal with the wiring if you don?t know what you?re doing.

3. Update the kitchen cabinets either by painting them and replacing the hardware or by taking off the doors to the upper cabinets and either painting the insides or lining them with attractive paper.

4. Add color or pattern to the walls. If painting the cabinets isn?t permitted, your next best option would be to paint the walls, put up removable wallpaper or add an interesting decal.

5. If you need more storage space, hang a pot rack, shelf, peg board or storage system on the wall. If there is enough extra space in the kitchen, you could also buy a small kitchen cart or kitchen island on casters, which will increase your counter space but can be taken with you when you move out.

6. No matter what changes you decide to make, remember to stay on budget. This is a rental, after all, and you don?t want to sink your life savings into a place that you will not be staying in permanently.

With a little creativity and frugal buying, you can transform your boring (or ugly) apartment kitchen into a more inspiring room that you want to spend time cooking and eating in.

Resource: theKitchn

Tagged as: apartment kitchen, kitchen cabinets, light fixtures, new faucet and taps, plumbers, plumbers FL, plumbers Orlando FL, Plumbing, plumbing FL, plumbing Orlando FL, professional plumbing contractor, removable wallpaper

Source: http://www.my-home-improvement.com/2013/01/19/diy-friday-transforming-your-apartment-kitchen/

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