Loving Your Rental: A Fabulous Kitchen DIY



I am sure many of you are following Jenny from The Little Green Notebook's adventure of re-decorating and re-vamping her rental brownstone in Brooklyn! With her impeccable taste, tenacity and perseverance she is turning a run-down bachelor pad into a stylish abode! 

This week she unveiled her kitchen. She took garish glossy oak cabinets and gave them the most stylish makeover with a bit of grain filler, paint and gold hardware. I am jealous! I have similar grainy oak cabinets {oh, and the same fridge} and would love to have done this to our kitchen had I known we would of been renting for 4 years! Now I am unsure of where we will be next fall so I can't be bothered to invest the time and energy painting. Also, I suspect my landlords would **gasp** if I suggested painting over the wood!

Back to Jenny's kitchen.
Can I get an "oooh and an aaaah?"







So I live vicariously through Jenny who is daring to be different and whose style just shines!

Isn't it amazing what a little paint and organizing can do? Oh, and I spy a new kitchen faucet as well, gorgeous.

XO Barbara


16 comments

  1. Wow, that takes guts but what a reward!!!! That is awesome inspiration for you Barb!! Maybe show your landlord this post ;-)

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  2. She has done an amazing job .... and PAINT ... is a miracle worker!! xo

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  3. The cabinets are amazing and the hardware even better! I love her stove too!

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  4. I am crazy for those cabinets! I am oohing and aahing as we speak!

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  5. What a difference! Amazing what paint can do!

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  6. It's been awhile since I visited her site. Thanks for the heads up Barbara! It looks sooo good. I remember all too well railing against the Vancouver renters curse and not being able to make improvements. Arrrggh!

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  7. I also haven't stopped by Jenny's site in a while, but can see I've been missing out on an inspiring makeover! You'd definitely never know those were the same cabinets... do you think your landlord would? ;-)

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  8. Love the dark grey cabinets with the gold hardware - that's such an awesome look :-) Jenny did a great job :-) There's something to satisfying about painting over icky oak cabinetry!

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  9. Wow, that looks amazing!! I am always tempted to paint our cabinets but given that we'll sell this house in the near future and knowing how crazy you BC types (you excluded of course) are for your wood kitchens I wouldn't dare.

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  10. What a transformation! I wish I could paint my rental kitchen!

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  11. oooh and ahh indeed! the gold faucet looks ah-mazing.

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  12. what an incredible transformation!! love the rich, deep charcoal grey with a hint of royal blue ... and how the cabinet makeover comes to life with the brass hardware!! Genius!!

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  13. I didn't know you could do that with grain filler! In fact, I'd never even heard of grain filler...until now. Fabulous makeover. Thanks for sharing, I'd missed this one.

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  14. Looks incredible! Love the colour.. and the basically the whole kitchen :)
    D xo

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