A Renter Gave This “Sterile” Kitchen a $250 Maximalist Makeover — And Kept the Security Deposit
When Daniel (@danielsqueerbau, he/she) moved into his apartment rental, he knew one thing: The kitchen layout needed to go. The room came with ’90s-era red-toned cabinets, paired with yellowing laminate.
“The kitchen’s red cabinets gave me literal anxiety,” she says. “Every time I cooked, I felt like I was in a retro diner — not my cozy flat. I craved a moody, cinematic vibe — think: Parisian cocktail bar meets New York loft.”
The only problem? Daniel’s landlord forbade removing cabinets, drilling, or making any permanent changes, so it took some creativity to bring a more moody kitchen to life. Read on to discover how Daniel transformed the bland rental kitchen into a striking, glamorous, and fully personalized renter-friendly space, all for €220 (roughly $250).
Rental-friendly contact paper drastically changed the color scheme.
To avoid any headaches come move-out time eventually, Daniel opted to use contact paper rather than paint to cover his cabinets and countertops. He applied black matte contact paper to the cabinets, and for the counters he used leftover marble contact paper his friend gave him from a previous project.
When it comes to using contact paper, Daniel recommends purchasing about 20% more than you think you need, because “I misjudged the cabinet sizes and had to reorder [some],” he says.
The backsplash also got a black makeover.
Daniel also used stick-on tiles to cover the “sterile” white tiles that “felt like a hospital,” he says.
His advice for applying contact paper and peel-and-stick? Heat is your friend when it comes to applying it! “I cut contact paper to size and applied it slowly with a credit card to soothe bubbles,” Daniel says. “I used a hairdryer to smooth stubborn corners.”
The striped hallway complements the kitchen color scheme.
There are three spots Daniel chose to paint in the space: The recessed area above the cabinets got a coat of black paint “to create depth and draw the eye upward,” she says; the partition by the dining table also got a pop of black; and the hallway stripes draw the eye upward and tie the kitchen and hallway together.
Before, the hallway had “zero personality” and “felt like a tunnel, not a home,” Daniel says. He used a spirit level to create 15-centimeter-wide stripes across the ceiling that all come to a point at the kitchen, although he says if he were doing the project over again he would continue them throughout the living room.
Glam details complete the kitchen.
Finally, Daniel added a mix of timeless gold accents and playful neon. He installed gold cabinet handles and a €25 gold faucet found on Facebook Marketplace, which he says “made washing dishes feel glamorous” and added a blue neon sign to tie the space together and add “a playful, ‘gay bar’ wink.”
The takeaway? Being a renter doesn’t mean sacrificing personal, creative touches. One last creative touch is the pendant light, which was given the same painted striped treatment as the ceiling. (It was originally a plain black pendant similar to this.)
“This project taught me that rentals are just blank canvases with rules,” Daniel says. “For [a little over] €200, I turned anxiety-inducing red into a mood sanctuary that feels like me — without losing my deposit. It’s proof that creativity beats cash, and a little stubbornness can make even a landlord-friendly kitchen feel luxurious.”
Inspired? Submit your own project here.