As an
apartment renter, it can be frustrating not to be able to personalize your home as much as you might want. I’m here to share one way you might not have considered, a kitchen face lift without spending a lot of money or voiding your contract.
Wonder how that’s possible? What about taking a look at your kitchen cabinet hardware? Many apartments have the old brass look that is often tarnished and dated. Simply remove the knobs that are there and find an easily affordable substitute. Kitchen knobs are usually fairly easy to match and can be found at thrift stores, hardware outlet stores or even discount stores online.
There may be some variation in door thickness, but most hardware packets for the knobs, if purchased new from a supplier or hardware store, come with two lengths of screws to accommodate most applications. If screws don’t come with the knobs, they can also be found at a local hardware store. Installation is simple even for the novice DIYer.
Another possibility if you find knobs that aren’t the exact color or patina you’re looking for is to choose to spray-paint them. My DIY husband and I had grown tired of the brass look and were going more rustic in our kitchen, so it was time for a change.
The essential key to your success is to clean and prime the knobs. If they are used, they may have a lot of gunk on them, so you’ll want to soak them overnight in a strong cleaning solution that contains a degreaser. If you’re not sure if they’re clean enough, scratch one with your fingernail and see if you remove anything. Let them dry and go on to the next step. These can be awkward to handle when wet (with paint), so I got styrofoam panels that we had salvaged, poked nails up from the bottom and set the knobs on the nails. This is perfect to keep them stable without touching them for the rest of the paint job.
You’ll notice different colors here. If you can’t quite decide what you might like, paint some and install them. There’s no harm done, and since you’re going to prime anyway, a sneak peek might not be a bad idea.
I primed all the knobs with a Rust-Oleum metal primer, then added a couple coats of the metallic bronze and finished with the clear enamel to seal them from heavy traffic. Now, if you have wood knobs, just use an aerosol primer like KILZ, but it must be oil-based and follow the same process. Note that petroleum-based products will break down styrofoam! See how it warps? Just have some support available in case things go south!
Painting the cabinet knobs provided a quick and inexpensive update for our kitchen. If you can find an exact match for the hinges, it is also possible to swap them out, but make sure you take one off ahead of time and double check the fit.
Just keep the old knobs and hinges, and when your lease is up, swap them out when you move out!
