Woman shares incredible rental-friendly DIY kitchen makeover – and it cost just £300

A woman has shared the incredible DIY transformation the kitchen in her rental home underwent – and it cost her just £300.

Kelsey Heinrichs, from London, and partner Justin, decided to give their kitchen a spruce up earlier this year – using the lockdown as a chance to get stuck into some DIY.

Thrifty Kelsey, who has been living in the flat in south west London for two years, spent two weekends on the impressive transformation.

She started with a small issue – tackling the old and mouldy sealant around her tiles – but found the simple DIY task “sparked” her imagination when it came to the rest of the kitchen.

She made an Excel spreadsheet to work out how much money she would realistically need to give the entire room an overhaul, and decided to go for it when she realised she could do it for just £300.

Kelsey pitched the idea to their landlords – who she describes as “pretty chill” – and they approved the proposed changes.

She started by painting the kitchen tiles a neutral white colour, before tackling the kitchen cabinets using a DIY tutorial on YouTube which walked her through how to give a “Cotswolds cottage aesthetic”.

Kelsey removed the cabinet doors, drawer fronts and handles, and cleaned the doors with sugar soap from Wilko to remove dirt and grease.

She then cut MDF strip wood to size and glued it to the cabinet doors using Wickes Instant Grab Adhesive Glue.

Once the glue had dried, she lightly sanded down the edges with 240 grit sandpaper, before applying primer.

Once the primer had dried, she lightly sanded the surface again before applying paint with a paint roller.

Finally, she drilled holes and attached new cabinet handles.

She also decided to cover the boiler by creating two panels of MDF to hide it and create a space that matched the cabinets.

Kelsey then set about creating a custom pantry door that she designed herself on Adobe Illustrator.

Justin then used a Bosch Plunge Router to cut out the arched windows using a circle cutting guide.

Once the door frame was cut, primed and painted, they attached cane webbing that Kelsey had ordered to create a stylish rattan effect.

They attached the rattan to the back of the door frame using a staple gun, cut off the excess and left it to dry overnight. They then added a gold handle to match the cabinets and drawers.

In total, they spent £300 on the transformation.

The MDF and pine wood came to £81.99, the two tins of tile paint totalled £30, the tin of 2.5 litre primer cost £25 and the three tines of cupboard paint set them back £45.

The rattan cost £52.25, while the gold handles cost £35.04. The door hinges cost them £20, and the nails and other miscellaneous items cost a further £10.

Kelsey and Justin paid to update the kitchen, and their landlords agreed to cover the costs of replacing the extractor fan, washing machine and installing a new kitchen light.

One person said: “I bet the landlord lovessss you for doing this. You just increased his property worth by like 10000000 squids! Lol.” [sic]

“This is so good,” another user commented.

Someone else added: “I need to do this to our rental.”

“Love how it turned out!” another person agreed.

“Ever since moving into our London rental, I’ve had to make peace with the things I can’t change or fix either due to lack of budget or lack of knowledge,” Kelsey, an interiors blogger, told Jam Press.

“Saving for our first house has made it challenging to decide how much money we want to invest in our current rental to enjoy in the short term and what money we should put aside in our savings that will benefit us in the long term.

“People often say that it’s a waste of money to do any renovations to a rental, and to those people, I say, bore off! It’s a worthwhile investment to enjoy the home you’re currently living in.”

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Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, commenting, Music, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statutes that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational, or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.
Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976:
1)This video has no negative impact.
2)This video is also for entertainment purposes.
3)It is transformative in nature.

[lilpinksliplee]

The fact that she painted over the appliances would have flipped me out if it was mine.

[luciahoneybee]

That is great, but definitely not rental friendly! Painting over the (very cute) tiles and drilling holes in the cabinet doors is not rental friendly, at least where I'm from, you have to be able to leave everything exactly as you found it... Yikes 😬

[leemaoja]

I can’t believe she painted over that cute as tile.

[heartsDmise]

I personally thought the old tile was super cute 😭

[danieshateele]

BE AWARE - you must be sure to leave the property in the manner in which you received when signing the lease! Never make permanent changes that can’t be replaced back to the original

[RG_Eph]

Old tile was so adorable…too basic now

[cassieh]

As beautiful as this is ❤❤❤ and I truly love it. I hope my tenants ask me first before doing anything like this! I would gladly approve of improvements but some people don’t have an eye for design like this and that’s what scares me 😳

[c.o]

That awful rattan insert that’s been done to death

[haleyc.]

Stop ! Police ! You are being arrested for your crimes of painting over adorable and unique floral tile to make it generic and less functional as it is likely to chip in the future, , especially when you are only planning to stay there on a temporary basis . Your fine is to permanently install something cute, pastel, and floral in your house to carbon offset the damage you did to the world and restore the natural balance of cuteness .

[emilyroseayres]

lol I love it! If, for some reason, notice this incredible renovation, they should pay you for increasing the value of their home. Thanks for inspiring and Good Tiding and Happy New Year xo.

[jasminegilbreath]

Super cute but those tiles were BEAUTIFUL before!

[ruthanneswanson]

What did you put over the stove. Like the exhaust thing. I have just an empty hole that goes to god knows where… and it has kind of the construction like it used to be a vent… I’m wondering if I can put anything in because it literally stinks up my whole apartment when I cook bacon or broccoli for 2 days and I have an air purifier! It looks soooo good!

[sunrae]

New Subie, 'cause I'm having severe cabinet ENVY !! Stunning.😊❤

[mawmoshful]

These landlords need to just say THANK YOU

[catward]

Hope you don’t get charged $20k+ once you can’t undo this “renter friendly DIY” when you move out

[Wokkstar]

She asked for permission ❤ no property will allow you to do that

[inihilisme]

If i ever rent, I want renters like you, lol

[r-e_mii]

Id love to hear what the landlord said, if they gave permission, loved or hated it

[Waterwave]

Anyone else think that maybe its not even actually a rental lol

[strangerdaysss]

where can i find the hour long tutorials or making videos??? please link. love the aesthetics of the updates. tia!