I Live in NYC, and I Can’t Stop Thinking About These 9 City Kitchen Makeovers

I live in New York, and if you’ve ever lived in or visited the city, you probably know that the kitchens are not the sprawling size you sometimes see in the suburbs. They’re certainly not the size I grew up with in Missouri. Perhaps that’s why the city has so many great restaurants. (It’s a real chicken/egg situation.)

Because square footage comes at at a premium in NYC apartments, some people forgo home-cooked meals and use their ovens for storage. (Hello, Samsungs-turned-shoe storage!) Others — like me, for instance — who don’t necessarily have the budget for restaurant or carryout dining every night make do with the little kitchens they do have, oftentimes embracing vertical space. Here are nine DIYers who have made the most of their New York apartment kitchens — and extremely stylishly, at that.  I’m borrowing their ideas ASAP.

A dark kitchen adds drama in this NYC studio.

Sometimes people forewarn against using dark colors in small spaces, but in the case of Jason Saft’s (@stagedtosellhome) Brooklyn Heights studio apartment kitchen, it totally works — and helps define the room and make it distinct from the rest of the apartment. The trim is painted Benjamin Moore’s Kendall Charcoal, and the gray grasscloth wallpaper is completely removable — as is the bistro-style peel-and-stick tile on the floors.

A new backsplash and stripes add personality.

New York rental kitchens, if they were given a landlord special in the past 10 years or so, often come with some sort of mosaic-style tile. Sometimes it’s liveable, and sometimes it’s a brown and black combo that darkens the whole kitchen, like in Nancy Cavaliere’s (@casacavaliere) apartment. The white subway peel-and-stick tile in the “after” makes things much cheerier — as do the green painted stripes on the wall. DIY fabric skirts were also a budget-friendly way to cover up old water-damaged cabinets.

This kitchen makeover only cost $200.

Renter Jillian Marie Sayegh (@mysmallbiteofthebigapple) upgraded her tiny New York kitchen with peel-and-stick tiles on the backsplash and floors, black contact paper for the cabinets, and a lime green (Lick Green18 paint) accent wall. “You deserve to have the space of your dreams,” Jillian says. “Just because you are renting does not mean it can’t be beautiful.”

This NYC kitchen now has a touch of Parisian flair.

“Looking at my recently made-over kitchen, I can’t believe I lived with a plain white, builder-grade space for so long,” Apartment Therapy contributor Sarah Lyon says. A designer friend recently convinced her to paint her cabinets light blue (Farrow & Ball’s Lulworth Blue). A few other renter-friendly upgrades to copy in Sarah’s kitchen? She added a ceiling medallion and pendant light, added a new kitchen mat that looks like tile, and hung a framed artwork on her backsplash.

This renter leaned into the brown tones of her cabinets.

If you can’t paint your rental cabinets, you can lean into whatever color they are, like Claudia Williams (@byclaudiawilliams) did with her dark brown cabinets. She transformed the entire kitchen into a cozy warm-toned space with a faux wood peel-and-stick covering for her countertops, a DIY kitchen island, lots of wooden cutting boards, and more.

An abstract peel-and-stick mural adds personality.

Another option is to use peel-and-stick wallpaper to zhuzh up the walls in a rental kitchen, and you don’t have to leave the wallpaper in solid sheets. Renter Gica Tam freehand cut organic shapes out of peel-and-stick wallpaper to transform her New York City kitchen with a whimsical mural. She also added shelving to the back wall and a magnetic knife strip to maximize storage.

This Brooklyn kitchen functions for a whole family.

This Brooklyn kitchen got a makeover with taupe cabinet paint, new cabinet pulls, floating shelves, peel-and-stick wallpaper, a peel-and-stick backsplash, and a new kitchen table — perfect for the family of five who lives there to gather. “It was my goal to make it usable and beautiful,” Lisa Miller, the renter, explains. “It’s a small space, and because we don’t have a dining room, I wanted to make it easy for us all to eat together.”

Paint and pops of gold add style to a just fine kitchen.

This $300 kitchen makeover by Chelsea Angeleno (@cityloveletter) upped the contrast with white paint on the cabinets, black paint on the walls, pops of gold, and a new rug. “I love the mood that the dark walls bring in,” Chelsea previously told Apartment Therapy. 

This NYC kitchen now has tons of shelving.

DIYer Alyssa Murphy totally maximized storage in her kitchen makeover by squeezing shelving to the left of the range and adding an IKEA BILLY bookshelf to the left of the fridge. Plus she added style, to boot. In addition to tons of new shelving, there’s white paint (Benjamin Moore’s Super White) on the cabinets, a blue peel-and-stick backsplash, contact paper on the countertops, peel-and-stick flooring, and a new light fixture from CB2.