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Anyone have any suggestions on how to spruce up my dull looking kitchen without spending a lot of money? I don't have a window in the kitchen and it is very small and narrow.
Can you show us a picture? One thing you might try for an illusion of space is a mirrored surface. Standard mirrors are expensive now, but you might use mirrored tiles above the sink. Yuska
It is hard to spruce up a rented space - all the walls in our apartment are white and the lack of color and warmth drives me crazy. The only suggestions I have are pictures and things like that. We decided to go with bold colors in our kitchen. We have a small, inexpensive table with 4 chairs. The top of the table is wood, but the legs and the chairs are metal. It was a cream color with cream cushions. Made our bland white kitchen even blander. So I refinished the top of the table and stained it with a red-tinted stain (very light red). We painted all the metal parts black, and re-covered the chair seats in a bright green material! It really gave our kitchen the pop it needed. I also have some colorful candles in there, and a very small maybe 2-gallon aquarium with a pretty betta fish in it on the counter. We were lucky and got an apartment on the end so our kitchen has a nice size window as well as a sliding glass door opening onto the patio. It is the brightest room in the apartment, and also my favorite!
Every wall in our apartment is white and the living room, kitchen, and bathrooms have white tile floors. All that white drives me crazy as well! I do what I can to add color through the furniture and decorations. My landlord would have a fit if we painted. Plus we may be moving to Virginia this summer so there is no point now.
If you have a wall where you would like a window you could create the illusion of one by taking an old paned window frame and putting mirror in where the glass was. Hang it like a picture where you want the "window" and add some pretty curtains to add color and charm or add a flower box full of nice houseplants.
This whole "do not paint, do not make the place feel like a home" thing just drives me crazy too! You would think they would be willing to make exceptions with limits of course, for those who are long term tenants so we could feel comfortable in our homes.
Kanita...it was so nice meeting you at the RU the other day!!
I used the window idea once ...it was a very old 9 pane window...I left it rough looking and I had a collection of WV State magazines that always had beautiful pictures of wild flowers and scences in my home state of WV...I found 9 I liked very much and put one behind each pane of glass...then when I was doing something at the sink...I was looking at scenes from HOME!
I suggest going with a peace lily. I was also looking for a noce plant to spruce up my kitchen and I decided to go with the peace lily because it is a beautiful plant with dark green leaves and contracsting white blooms. The best part is that they are low light/shade plants and they're very easy to care for. I bought one for $3.99 at Pike Nursery about a week and a half ago. Another good low light plant is the chinese evergreen. Here are links to both in PlantFiles:
Peace Lily: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/57837/
Chinese Evergreen: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/70490
