Rental Redo: $8 Kitchen Make-Over

To be honest, the base housing that we have gotten is much better in some aspects and struggling in other. Some of the areas in which I think it excels is the fact that we have a 2 bedroom 1 1/2 bath townhouse. Surprisingly, we have grass in our front yard and a patio to the side and when we get around to it, we can paint! Now, some of the downsides are that we get what we get and there is not much we can do about it. With the number of people that are always coming and going they have to choose things that can withstand the masses.

One of those things that they have made as durable as possible are the kitchen cabinets. Usually there is some sort of design on the cabinets with handles but not here. They are slabs of wood...that is it. The sides of the cabinet sort of angle in so that you can grab and open it but the fronts are about as boring as they can get. I personally don't blame them. Having the job that I used to have managing a loft community with rentals I can see that there are many people who don't treat rentals very well and kitchen cabinets are an expensive thing to maintain - slabs of wood are easy.

It was the the very first thing that I couldn't stand and decided to change but on a budget and that wouldn't ruin the cabinet at all so here it goes...

No, I did not replace or ruin the cabinets at all. Here is what I did do - I laminated the front of wrapping paper and taped the edges with masking tape. By laminating the front with clear contact paper I made the surface of the cabinets water resistant and with the masking tape around the whole edge it gives it the appearance of being a finished but can easily be replaced if it ever gets ruined or loses its sticky factor.

First of all perfection is not really an option but the appearance of perfection is.

{How To Re-Do}

Step 1: Hold the contact paper up to your cabinet and cut the paper to the size of your cabinet. I left a 1.5 to 2" space all the way around so that I could give the appearance of an inlay inside the cabinet. Thankfully, the clear contact paper has a grid pattern on it so it makes it fairly easy to cut straight lines and to cut the same size for cabinets and drawers that are the same.

Step 2: Peel off the backing to the contact paper and lay it over the wrapping paper. (Note: This is a 2 person job!)

Step 3: Cut the excess of the paper away.

Step 4: Tape the laminated sheet up temporarily with scotch tape to make sure that it is square and then tape the edges with the masking tape. Now, if you cut some of your sheets a little shorter then you wanted you can use your masking tape by masking the difference. (Did you catch the pun? It was intentional just so you are aware.)

Step 5: Optional - you can cut the corners at a 45 degree so that the masking tape gives you a mitered look or you can leave them square depending on what kind of look you're going for.

{Price Break Down}

Clear contact paper: $5 (breaking the bank let me tell you)

Wrapping paper: $2 - I was lucky enough to find what I wanted at the dollar store and I needed a roll and a half to get it done.

Masking tape: $1 - again, dollar store.

Total - $8