Apartment Makeover • Kitchen

Alexa Katherine
by Alexa Katherine
5 Materials
Its the second episode of Apartment Makeover and it is all about the kitchen!
The kitchen has received the biggest transformation in the entire apartment. Since I was on a limited budget, there were things in the kitchen that I had to work with, such as… well basically everything I had to work with and keep. However, I was able to keep and make everything my own style.
The first thing that we decided to do were the cabinets. The cabinets were a much lighter wood color originally. We decided to stain them darker. The cabinets also had very different hardware then my taste. We decided to take the hardware off and fill in the holes with wood putty. Once the wood putty was dry we sanded and cleaned the cabinets to prepare them for stain.
We used Minwax gel stain because we were keeping the cabinets on the wall the entire time. Most stains are very liquidy which is why we wanted a gel consistency stain. The stain worked very well and didn’t make a mess since it was the stain was a gel and easily control-able.
Once the cabinets were all dry with stain we put a coat of polyurethane on top. The polyurethane was also made by Minwax.
After all the coats were dry, we put on a new nickel hardware and it made the cabinets look so sleek and modern.
There were two things in this apartment that I desperately wanted and fixed into my budget. What I wanted so desperately in this apartment was a dishwasher and a garbage disposal. However there was a problem, there was no room for a dishwasher near the sink. The sink was originally in the middle of two windows.
Which meant we had to move the sink in the cabinets to the other side of the wall in order to install a dishwasher. Thankfully, my uncle is a plumber and graciously helped to move the piping in the sink to the other side of the wall. Since there was an extra appliance added, we needed to get new countertops. The countertops were picked before the backsplash was installed so if I had to do it all over again, I would pick a different countertop. I still love the countertops, so I am not complaining.
After The cabinets were all done, we moved on to the walls. The walls were paneling, 1970s paneling! The walls weren’t in the best shape so we thought, our best option would be wallpaper. I found this paintable wallpaper that had texture and we used that wallpaper to cover the paneling.
There are also places in the kitchen that showed the actual wall, so we decided to use a wallpaper that had a grayish tone in order to tie in the countertops. The next day after the wallpaper was dry we used Behr Marquee to paint the paintable wallpaper. I picked up a paint that was a beige color, that would tie in the colors of the backsplash.
Next project were the floors. The floors were originally a laminate floor and at that point we were running a little tight on our budget. We didn’t really know what to do with the floor but we knew that we couldn’t keep the original floor, it was run down and falling apart.
We ripped up the floor and found a sticky vinyl floor. The sticky vinyl floor is grout-able, which is what I wanted and it looked pretty easy to install. We purchased the flooring at Lowe’s and I am very please with the outcome.


The installation was very easy and it only took us about a half a day to install the whole floor. My only suggestion is when putting down the floor, the first tile that you put down, you have to check and double check. Make sure that first tile is perfect because it will dictate all the other tiles that you lay down.
Before & After
Before & After
Before & After
Frequently asked questions
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3 of 4 questions
  • Patricia Seman Patricia Seman on Feb 28, 2017
    What was the back splash made if? Was it a tile and how did you put it up?
  • Karen Karen on Dec 09, 2019

    What did you do for the backsplash? Thanks, Karen

  • Andreacaa Andreacaa on Feb 12, 2020

    I am just curious..you did a great job. However, you said this was an apartment. You did this in a place you rented?

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2 of 15 comments
  • Liza Liza on Dec 09, 2020

    Never do this to a rental apartment unless you have written, signed permission from the landlord. This kind of work can cost a landlord a lot of money to restore if it is done poorly or it is ugly. It is very popular to do “renter friendly” updates, but a lot of the suggestions damage existing surfaces, including peel and stick wallpaper and back splashes. Even with permission, changing the finish on cabinets can cause lasting damage, depending on the cabinet material and the product used on them.

  • Mary Russell Mary Russell on Dec 09, 2020

    I really hope this place belonged to you.If you did this to a place I rented to you I WOULD NOT BE HAPPY,TO PUT IT AS MILD AS i CAN PUT IT.

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