apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I love the framed food photos! My rental kitchen back splash is just boring, white paint. I'll definitely be trying that! Thanks for the great idea!

this is a great transformation for such a little cash. you're right, the less fake wood showing the better. and that floral paper is a great idea.

I love how organized your cupboards are now, but I'm afraid having all of the doors off makes it seem too cluttered for me.

Fiestaware makes everything brighter and warmer! How did you hide the holes from the hardware on the cabinets?

I really like how you've decided to store the lids to your pots and pans--very handy. I think I'll have to steal that idea for my kitchen. Thanks!

This looks fabulous! I may have to try this in my own kitchen...it will force me to be neater too!

Creative ideas working with so many restrictions. Nice work! I couldn't handle the "busyness" personally, but it definitely has a lively, homey look.

Where do you store the cabinet doors?

mad_dialect, the screws go into the sides of the cabinest, not the front, thankfully, so we didn't have to worry about hiding the holes!

Victoria in DC, we have a small closet/room that serves as a storage space, and we store the cabinet doors there, since we'll have to put them back on when we move out. They stack pretty neatly, so it's not too much of a pain.

I'm also not a huge fan of the cluttered look, but to each his own. I would have kept the doors or maybe replaced them with frosted glass which is a more modern but still economical option. I like all your colorful bowls and mugs, though. :)

Hopefully you have some sort of backsplash or protective covering on the art above the stove. Backsplashes don't just serve a decorative purpose -- they help protect the walls from all manner of stains (moisture from steam, food splatters, etc). The art seems vulnerable in that spot.

This looks worlds better!! Great job.

Not a fan of the "doors all off" look.
To me, it simply looks like an incomplete kitchen remodel and the doors just haven't been installed yet.

Way to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear!

Usually I'm not a fan of removing cabinet doors, but this looks fabulous. Great job.

Aaah! There are wood cabinets in the rental I'm moving into, and I was worried about whether they would look good with the cabinet doors off. This post has assuaged my fears. Love what you've done and super jealous of all that gorgeous Fiestaware :D

What a simple yet dramatic change! I love it.

It looks much better, but I would have kept at least one or two doors. Exposing dishes is nice, but less eye pleasing items should be stored behind doors, imo.

For bottom cabinets, like in the first "after" photo, it is really useful to put all those single items into one large box, mimicking a drawer, so that you have easy access even to the items in the back, without having to literally crawl into the cabinet.

midmodfan, that's a great idea. It is a bit of a struggle to reach some of those items hidden way back.

SUCH an improvement. It is a much warmer room and I like your resourcefulness. Stark white and minimal isn't for everyone. This shows how much can be done for so little. Good job.

I love how it looks.. just not for me; especially since I live in LA, I'm afraid everything will fall apart in an earthquake!

Good job though!

One could always try using fabric to make curtains instead of cabinet doors. My mother did this once and it worked rather well.

I like everything except that addition of photos above the counters. The visual display of your dishes etc opens up the kitchen, but I find the images just busy and crowded because they compete with the stuff in your cupboards. Good for you for making the most of having very little to work with!!!

I love it! I feel totally inspired to go into my kitchen and make changes right this minute.

OK I just came back to say that I honest to god just took off a cupboard door. And, phew, I can see that life is going to be better already! :)

very colorful and pretty, I love how you added paper to the backs, and love the reg rug.

I probably would have left some of the the doors up like above the fridge, but the fiesta doors left off to display your pretty collection.

great job!

Nice! The artwork on the back splash is perfect. I think it would look incomplete without it. The only thing I would do differently is unify the look of the pictures by using all the same frames.

(Don't you just hate trying to fit stuff into limited cabinet space????)

Just a suggestion, but I think it would look nice if you stood a few Fiesta plates along the back of the cabinet. I also would put a few of the doors back to hide the busier items with only the most decorative showing. Wonderful job with such limited funds.

Good move--a totally free and non-intrusive way to de-uglify the rental cabinetry. I've done it before. You might find (as I did) that a greasy, sticky film can accumulate on the stuff over time, because of open-air exposure to the range. But I agree with you, aesthetically, that a mosaic of colorful dishes and containers is way better than those woefully mediocre cabinet faces. I'm totally stealing your dishwasher-as-pot-lid-rack too!

Efficient, organized & gorgeous ... I love what you've done!!! Clever backsplash!

Consider drawing more attention to your most beautiful items (i.e., dishes, canisters & cookbooks) by reinstalling a few cabinet doors to cover the other items. That way the eye will be drawn to those specific items instead of everything at once.

Love how you've repurposed glass jars to store your food. It looks so much neater compared to the usual mish-mash of cereal boxes, pasta boxes & plastic bags. I am working my way to that as well. Del Monte Special Select Produce peach jars & Trader Joe's cookie tins, jam and spice jars are favorites of mine for storage in the kitchen, bath & garage/utility.

I am having a hard time finding rectangular glass or stainless steel storage for flour, sugar, etc. I keep finding big, round containers which won't fit as well in the cabinet ... either that or the containers are too tall for the cabinet.
~ Any suggestions? What do you use to store flour, sugar, etc.?

Really smart solution and a good example of using creativity instead of cash.

It's amazing what a difference removing the cupboard doors made. Also, I love how you arranged your dishes, etc. It makes the kitchen feel alive and homey.

Great job! AND it forces you to stay organized!

It looks AMAZING!! I hate the look of the fake wood cabinets -- something I'm experiencing now, actually -- and would totally take them off if not for the fact that our dishes are boring and black, not beautiful and fun like yours.

This creates such a homey, open look and it really does make organization a priority. I think you have done a fabulous job and I plan to use your kitchen as a bit of persuasian for my husband and also to steal all your ideas, of course. Also, I really like taking all of the top cabinets off, not necessarily leaving only some on, because it creates consistency and fluidity...with some of the cabinets on, I think it would break it up.

Thanks for this post!!!! :-)

@Lifeabundant: I found my rectangular glass jars for flour/sugar/coffee/etc at IKEA. :-)

Oh this makes me want to cry. My old apartment, which I miss so much, had exactly those ugly kitchen cabinets. For three years I tried in vain to make it look cute (I wound up plastering the cabinet doors with postcards and vintage looking food ads from french magazines, which was ok but cluttered) and I now see that all along I could have just removed the doors.

Furthermore, I had a bunch of decorative Marimekko tin boxes that I had picked up in Finland hiding behind those doors, which would have been cute to actually show off.
similar to these: http://www.finnport.com/comersus/store/comersus_listCategoriesAndProducts.asp?idCategory=125

Fantastic! Wonderful ideas, I'll have to see if I can implement any of them :)

Although not a fan of exposed kitchenware, anything to get rid of the doors. Unfortunately, we have rental inspections, so it would be seen as a breech of contract to do such a thing. Fortunately, my kitchen cabinets are in an eggshell white, although my preference is for glass doors. I love that you are using glass containers. I am going through the process of doing the same. I love those Ikea canisters, I must pick some up on my next visit. I have one of the Ikea cutlery caddies, but over time it has rusted, and the water accumulates on the bottom, it doesn't drain very well. I want to replace my dish drainer, tossing up about the wooden one or an expensive stainless steel.

It looks better, but I always find that unless you have a very well ventilated kitchen (which most rentals do not) exposed "stuff" gets a lovely coat of grimy dust on it, regardless of how often you use the stove/oven. So while stuff you use all of the time will be fine, lesser used items on exposed shelves will need cleaning or get icky.

@sunshines1301 ... thanks for the tip! Is it possible for you to post the link to your jars? I'm at the ikea site & I don't see your glass rectangular food storage jars. Perhaps your jars are only available in the brick & mortar ikea store (many retailers don't list their entire inventory online)? Unfortunately, there isn't an ikea nearby.

I love it!!! I have a pretty decent size kitchen for a rental, but soooo boring. Worse cabinets than yours and gross old linoleum. You've given me so many ideas!