I Doubled My Rental Kitchen’s Storage and Counter Area for $1,500

We fell in love with our condominium for its roomy, pre-war structure and for the sunshine; on a sunny fall day, the Sixth-floor dwelling was flooded with solar and tough to say no to. What we didn’t love a lot was the galley kitchen. It was roomy sufficient, positive, however the restricted cupboards and counter area left rather a lot to be desired for 2 avid dwelling cooks. Nonetheless, the pass-through window from the kitchen to the eating room bought us considering — earlier than we knew it we had been signing the lease, arranging for movers, and planning our very personal rental kitchen renovation.

As ill-advised as a rental kitchen renovation sounds, we determined it was price it for just a few causes. First, the mathematics labored. By shifting in collectively, my companion and I might be saving $900 monthly. We reasoned that was cash we may earmark for dwelling enhancements — together with an up to date kitchen.

As a result of we conferred with our landlord earlier than making any adjustments, we additionally felt assured that we wouldn’t must undo our renovations after we finally moved out. Probably most significantly, although, we knew that cooking was such an necessary a part of our dwelling lives that we couldn’t think about not upgrading our kitchen.

So, we began trying into our choices.

We knew immediately that we needed IKEA cupboards. Inexpensive, versatile, and easy-to-install, IKEA cupboards are the best way to go for thus many kitchen remodels. We selected the SEKTION line and, as a result of our present storage was largely cupboards, we went with all drawers, a call I might make time and again (and over) once more.

We additionally knew that we needed to create a breakfast bar on the opposite aspect of the pass-through window. There was a small countertop already there, however we needed one thing extra substantial.

What we didn’t know was what sort of countertop we needed. We considered butcher block, we checked out marble and quartz remnants, after which we determined to go along with Formica. If it hadn’t been a rental kitchen, we wouldn’t have even thought-about Formica. But it surely had just a few issues going for it.

For starters, it was cheaper and quicker than the opposite choices on the market — by rather a lot. For a earlier kitchen, I had rescued an oblong piece of marble for round $600, chopping and set up included, so I believed we’d be capable of discover a salvage yard in Brooklyn that may do all of it for round $1,000. I used to be improper. Our estimates had been within the $1,500 to $2,500 vary for remnants and butcher block, and the wait, whereas not offensively lengthy, wasn’t insignificant.

Our Formica counter tops price $700 all-in and we may get them put in in per week. In fact, Formica is a less expensive materials, however one more reason the Formica counter tops had been low cost and quick was as a result of our landlord had a prepared provide of Formica readily available and a go-to crew able to measure and set up.

We additionally favored the concept of our counter tops matching, even when they wouldn’t have been our first selection, and we favored that our landlord was a part of the method.

The ultimate contact was including knobs and pulls (to match the brand new knobs and pulls) to the outdated cupboards to attempt to tie all the pieces collectively much more.