Rental Kitchen Makeover on a Budget - Studio McGee Inspired DIY

Hi, and welcome to YouTube.com. I'm Angelica, and this is a rental kitchen makeover. I'm going to show you how to turn this into this, and this into this. How do I do it? Shush, and watch the movie. Marty, shh. This is my rental kitchen. I'm grateful that it's a pretty nice size, but it's also dim and depressing, no character in sight. I couldn't even be bothered to put on a dang door frame. Excuse me. And worst of all, there's hardly any natural light. This is a bummer, but we're just going to do our best. I started by creating a focal point. When you enter the room, the first thing you face is this emotionless corner. First impressions matter. I don't have time for you to turn the corner before something looks good. I wanted to add a little architectural detail that anyone can do to frame the door and add a little storage with floating shelves. It's tool time, baby. I used my orbital saw to cut down a 1 by 5 common board into two shelves. To ensure an even sanding job, draw a line in pencil and sand until the pencil mark is no longer visible. I also did a light sanding pass on the edges of the board to get rid of those sharp corners. Little details like this will make your DIY feel polished and professional. I applied a wood conditioner, which gives you even coloring when you apply your wood stain. Then I stained using an early American stain. To hang these floating shelves, I followed an amazing tutorial by DIY Creators, which I will link below. You should watch it. Basically, I used a Kreg jig to drill pocket holes and then drove one screw into the wall stud, adjusted the shelf until it was level, and then secured with a second screw. I screwed in from above for the upper shelf and from below for the lower shelf so that the screws would not be visible except to Marty. For a spicy architectural detail, I stained some 1-1.25 inch trim pieces and attached them to the wall using a brad nailer in a way that they appeared to run through the shelves and around the door, giving the whole corner a little more definition and personality. The lines draw the eye up and get use of some of that vertical space. I was kind of surprised that this actually came out the way I wanted it to. On a scale of one to Schacht, I would say I'm substantially. And now when you enter the kitchen, the first thing you see is a lovely focal point. Next, Marty and I turned our attention to the counter area. We did some easy rental upgrades, switching out these cabinet knobs for some that Marty picked out from Etsy. Marty, guess what's here? They have a ribbed detailing that gives them a slightly vintage look, and the deep color pops nicely on that endless abyss of white. I did a classic knob for the top cabinets and a drop pull on the bottom cabinets. The black laminate countertop was just very intense for me, so I covered it in a thick marble vinyl countertop, which I used to my bathroom makeover. You can watch that here, and it holds up great. I upgraded the kitchen paint color to my favorite white paint, Palais White by Behr. You know what painting looks like, so this is all I'm gonna make you watch of it. Painting tip, instead of washing your roller or brush every time you take a break, just wrap them tightly in a plastic bag, and they'll stay fresh for several hours. I wanted to do a special paint feature for the backsplash behind the counter. For this, I just took some quarter-inch painter's tape and made a stripe pattern all around the backsplash. I combined some leftover gray and navy paint I had. If you do this, I'd recommend just mixing all at once all the paint you will need for the project, because if you run out of paint and you have to remix it, the chances of you matching that same paint color are zero. It's zero percent chance. I've been burned before, just trust me and mix all the paint you need up top. This bit of color helps break up all the white cabinetry, and the subtle pattern adds depth and texture to the room. The other side of the kitchen has a whole lot of nothing going on, apart from these blinds that are literally murdering me. I started by removing the blinds, and if you're renting, be sure to store that hardware in a safe place or some kind of Abercrombie bag for safekeeping in case you need to reinstall it when you move out. For the stinky little light, I also did a quick makeover, just spray painting the inside gold and the outside black for a slightly modern look. Technically not renter friendly, but I just felt pretty confident that my landlord wouldn't care. Quick makeover, and it came out pretty much not terrible. To finish off this wall, I found this vintage buffet table on Facebook Marketplace for a flirty $100 and refinished it to get the natural wood warm tones. If you want to know more, I have a whole tutorial on the process which you can watch, but if you want to know less, the basic steps were stripping with citrus strip, sanding, applying mineral spirits, and sealing with a top coat. In stale builder grade homes, vintage pieces like this really help bring character and personality, and this beautiful wood helps elevate the other more bleh materials. For finishing touches, I added a runner rug that has navy, pink, and gold hues to add a little warmth and color to this sad floor. I knew I wanted to fill this weirdo space above the refrigerator. There's too many rectangles here, it's too much, so I wanted something round to offset all those right angles. Otherwise, it would just kind of start looking like Tetris. I went with an oversized clock, and it was mwah delicious. I'm also a big advocate for investing in a nice trash can. If you have to have trash in your kitchen, it better be sexy. I also stay away from sensor-activated trash cans. It's a nice idea, but I find they often malfunction, and if I have to open that trash with my hand, I'm gonna start acting real rude. And most importantly, I hung this portrait that my little sister painted of Marty. Are you freaking me? She's so talented. And that's the whole makeover! There's always limitations with a rental place. You can't fix everything, but I try to just focus on the stuff you can change. If you haven't subscribed already, today's the day. Like the video if you enjoyed it. Give it a thumbs up. Share it with your mom. Moms love this crap. For my next video, I'm thinking of doing a very cool DIY desk that actually looks good. It's gonna be a desk that is hot. But I want to hear from you guys, what's most important to you? How much it costs? How large it is? How much storage it has? How pretty it looks? So leave a comment letting me know what you would look for if you were gonna DIY a desk, and what requirements it would have to match. I can't stop flipping my hair. And I'm gonna come out with a video for you. Okay, that's it! Thanks for watching! Can you tell that this bodysuit is not attached to my body?