Where I Stay: The Kitchen

So after looking at about 74 apartments and dealing with horrible brokers and bidding wars (yes for a rental) we found our place. I'm super happy with the apartment. We were very picky and we had a long list of must haves. We needed laundry in the building, preferably in the unit (little Henry fires through some clothes) I really wanted a parking space but this wasn't a must have. As lame and shitty as it sounds we needed to be in a safe neighborhood, preferably with a good public school nearby. It also needed to be big enough to fit all of our crap that we don't need inside of it. Having a baby really does change the game when it comes to finding the perfect apartment.

When first viewing the apartment that we chose-it didn't show that well. The apartment has one long brick wall (that I love) that was painted baby blue for some reason. Also the kitchen was sort of a patchwork of various wack kitchens. So we quickly moved on the apartment and said we will take it! We were down to pay full asking, pay full commission, as long as they painted and I was able to put in a kitchen at their expense. I said I would put in a kitchen and they could knock a month off the rent- and they went for it!

So I did an inexpensive basic white Ikea cabinet with Ikea butcher block with a simple subway tile with black grout and on the windowsill I used a reclaimed piece of mahogany that I picked up from a friend. There is a washer and dryer on the right wall of the kitchen in a sort of cut out closet with no door, so that is the reason for the curtain. I built it out with pipe so we can also put a hamper back there, a mop, a vacuum and other random crap that I don;t want to look at. We have two of the smallest closets ever made so this was kind of necessary. I just used plumbing pipe, painted it black, hung some curtain rings and used a paint tarp from Home Depot as the curtain. I did hang my own light fixture and I plan on putting a few more finishing touches on the room over time but at least it's new, and clean, and I don't hate it.