A “Typical Landlord Special” NYC Kitchen Got a Chic $400 Makeover
ABOUT THIS BEFORE & AFTER
HOME TYPE: Apartment
PROJECT TYPE: Kitchen
STYLE: Eclectic, Parisian
SKILL LEVEL: DIY
RENTAL FRIENDLY: Yes
Often, home transformations happen in stages, and that’s true for Amaia Arana’s kitchen makeover, which she calls “a long-term DIY project” that happened over the course of the seven years she’s lived in the apartment.
“We are gigging artists who don’t have an endless bank account to spend on changing up our apartment whenever we want,” Amaia says. “That’s meant having a lot of patience either having my eye on something for a while … or checking Facebook Marketplace every single day to thrift items and then making one big change a year when it felt doable for our budget.”
What started as a “typical NYC landlord special” with off-white, beige, and brown is now a green and black beauty.
Adding a bar and dresser helped define the space.
Amaia and her husband, Mike, liked the size of the kitchen before (especially its size for New York!), but Amaia says “it felt like wasted space” until they added a dresser and a bar with hairpin legs for storage and seating, both of which were budget-friendly finds.
The table and barstools were Facebook Marketplace finds, and the dresser was an IKEA upcycle. The HEMNES dresser was a hand-me-down from Amaia’s roommate, and it used to hold her TV. “I wanted something that felt very ‘deVol kitchen’ in that spot,” Amaia says. (Think: antique with a marble top.)
“My husband insisted it needed to have storage — fair,” she says. “After months of looking on Facebook Marketplace, nothing was clicking … we mounted the TV and took the dresser into the kitchen, and it completely transformed the space. We changed out the knobs, and it gave us so much more useful storage in the kitchen and it feels like it’s a built-in that was so meant to be there. Plus, it gives us even more counter space.”
Paint and peel-and-stick tiles offer aesthetic upgrades.
The dresser didn’t move into the kitchen until 2024, and other changes, like painting and adding peel-and-stick upgrades, happened earlier. Amaia and Mike painted the kitchen dark green (Clare’s Current Mood) in 2021, which vastly improved the beige walls.
They covered their countertops with contact paper in 2022, and they just added new checkerboard peel-and-stick flooring in the first week of 2025. Both were first-time projects that required careful measurements, Amaia shares, adding that Mike did most of the measuring and math, and she did the precision cutting.
Amaia’s best advice for apartment “renovaters” is to do your research on peel-and-stick materials and paint — it’s often worth it to splurge. “We wanted those to be as functional as possible (i.e., waterproof, renter-friendly, and durable),” Amaia says. Where she and Mike saved money was with their furniture and decor.
Artwork gives the kitchen personality.
“Expensive isn’t always necessary when it comes to collecting art!” Amaia advises. “For example, the pieces of art above our trash can we got from a street artist on our honeymoon for maybe 10 euro all together.” Amaia and Mike bought cheap frames from IKEA and Target to hang them, and voila!
Finally, Amaia’s advice is to do small projects that add personality little by little — don’t feel pressured to do everything all at once. “Maybe it’s a piece of art you love that you decide to hang on the wall, a postcard someone sent you that you frame, or maybe you can dive right in with painting — awesome!” she says. “If you take that pressure off of yourself and let it be an ongoing creative process, you’ll be amazed by the treasures you’ll find, and it’ll ultimately feel more like yours,” she says.
Her cozy kitchen redo cost about $400. “The kitchen has gone from being the most avoided room in the apartment to my absolute favorite,” she says. “It feels cozy, functional, [and] romantic.”
Inspired? Submit your own project here.
Further Reading
I Tried the 90/90 Rule and My Closet Is Now Fully Decluttered
We Tested (and Rated!) Every Sofa at West Elm — Here Are the Best for Every Type of Need
Everything You’ve Ever Wanted To Know About Article’s DTC Furniture
