Planning: The Kitchen

Rental properties aren't usually known for having great kitchens, at least not the ones we've seen/live in, but we got lucky this time.  It's not perfect, but there is a lot of potential & the appliances & fixtures are in great shape!  From the floorplan above (via Floorplanner.com) you can see that the room, like our living room, is long and narrow, but I have lots of ideas on how to use this space. 

We want to take the opportunity to make this place home, but it's not a forever home so we're keeping the budget small especially in the kitchen.  We decided to keep the light green/taupe paint colour already in the kitchen  because a) its not THAT bad, b) it kind of goes with the back splash & floor colour, & c) it saves us more decorating money to use elsewhere. So here are some pictures of the disaster area kitchen after just moving and a list of my plans to make it ours:

1. The pots & pans cubby - I'm not a huge fan of open storage so I'm thinking of hiding 2 tension rods, 1 behind the top trim & 1 behind the bottom piece of trim then make a little curtain.  Possibly black, possibly patterned, haven't found anything that catches my eye yet.

2. The WTF light octopus fixture - holy ugly light, not only is this fixture an eye sore but it uses 7 light bulbs & if it weren't for the little island my bf would be constantly hitting his head, soooo it needs to be replaced, possibly with something from another room.

3. Utensil storage - we bought these from Ikea for the other house & have since installed one above the stove to hang some cooking utensils & oven mitts, maybe a spice rack or something eventually. I think someone already hung something in that spot because there are 2 holes in the wall about two feet apart, luckily the Ikea rail covers those seeing as there is no matching paint left.  The other rail is above the sink & holds a dish towel & cloth well out of reach from the dog.

4. Under cabinet lighting - the only light on that side of the kitchen is the octopus & it's way too bright/expensive to have on at night for preventing stubbed toes when looking for ice cream.  We've since installed this fluorescent light under the cabinet.

5. Tea Basket - Somewhere in some box I have a shallow basket perfect for corralling all of our teas.  Something needs to be done because the dog keeps stealing tea bags & ripping them apart all over the house.

6. Hidden Storage - We have a lot of small, occasionally used kitchen appliances and other junk, so I want some baskets or maybe a tin container to hid all those but keep them accessible for when we feel like homemade waffles.

7. Chalkboard Fridge - My parents gave us their old fridge when we moved because there wasn't one with this house.  I works perfectly & looks like new inside, but the doors have started to rust.  The solution...a chalkboard fridge.  I'm sooo excited to paint the fridge, I love the matte black look of chalkboard paint & I think it will fit perfectly with the black appliances in the rest of the kitchen.  Stay tuned for my version of fridge painting.

8. Door Curtain - this door is the only source of natural light in the kitchen.  While it brings in lots of sun during the day, it also gives the backyard neighbours an unobstructed view of the inside of our house at night.  I'm searching for materials to make magnetic curtain rods & maybe a dyed canvas drop cloth for the fabric?!?! Anything will be better than that stupid paper blind.

9. Door Mat - since the dog hasn't picked up on using the toilet, she still needs to go outside all the time.  The above door leads to the back yard, so it's a high traffic entrance. I want some sort of abrasive grass mat catch all the dirt, so I picked up a couple of these. 

10. Replace clutter with Table - we're waiting on a table & hutch/buffet for this side of the kitchen, so the boxes will have to go somewhere else.  It will be nice to sit & eat at a table again!

11. Cleaning storage?? - so this house doesn't have a pantry or closet on the main floor besides the coat closet at the front, so I need to come up with a solution to store the cleaning supplies such as mops, vacuum, rags, & cleaning products.

12. Food storage - I hate having food out in the open, it looks so cluttered & grocery store-ish.  Once our cabinet arrives we'll put all the food in the kitchen cupboards & the dishes will go in the cabinet. I'm looking forward to some tidiness.

13. The hand-me-down hutch/buffet - We're sooo excited to get a dining room set from my family!!! I think the china cabinet will go along this wall.  I'm also thinking of painting the hutch, maybe white, maybe black, maybe not, don't know yet.

So that's the plan for the kitchen so far, now it's just a matter of getting organized & doing it!  Keep an eye out for the before & after on the chalk board fridge & plans for the rest of the house.

Have any of YOU taken on a rental property makeover? Any tips?