This Renter-Friendly Kitchen Redo Fakes the Look of Painted Cabinets

When Heidi Becker, a public relations specialist at CLYDE Group, was moving into her 403-square-foot studio rental apartment in Washington, D.C., everything was perfect — except for one room. “Originally, the kitchen was your basic, run-of-the-mill studio kitchen, and the bare-boned wood cabinets and lack of personality didn’t match the rest of my colorful and eclectic apartment,” Becker shared.

Being an adept thrift shopper, Becker looked to her collection of fantastic finds for inspiration on reimagining her kitchen. She found emerald-colored knobs that were thrifted a few years back and decided to design her new kitchen around them. “To contrast the rest of the bright colors in my apartment, I wanted to base the color scheme around the knobs and create a darker, jewel-toned kitchen,” she says.

But because Becker lives in a rental apartment, she had to make temporary and easily removable changes if she ever wanted to move (and get her security deposit back). Here’s how she single-handedly transformed her basic kitchen.