Decorating a Renter's Kitchen on a Budget, Vintage Style

Flashback Summer: Decorating a Renter's Kitchen on a Budget, Vintage Style

As many of you have read on Instagram and other places, my husband and I just moved from a house into a new flat.  I won't go into all the details of the jankiness we dealt with in our previous home in the "Springfield slums," but I will say the straw that broke the camel's back was
a cat living in the attic and peeing directly on my husband's head through the ceiling while he was reclining on our couch.

Yes, true story.


SO OBVIOUSLY, we moved to a cleaner apartment that I have been slowly but steadily organizing and decorating for the past few weeks.  This is the third house my husband and I have lived in since we married two and a half years ago (accidentally practicing for our future military life I suppose!), and the kitchen is always an unpacking priority.  The ability to cook at home means we can save our budget from eating out all the time and recoup moving costs.  Also, having a place where I can find a cup of coffee or tea amidst the chaos makes it all much more bearable.



Flashback Summer: Decorating a Renter's Kitchen on a Budget, Vintage Style

Flashback Summer: Decorating a Renter's Kitchen on a Budget, Vintage Style
Our beverage supplies are stored on an old chip display that can fold up. I sanded it down with steel wool and spray painted it navy
(I've also linked to different items in my kitchen in each photo.  If you like them, you can get some of the items for yourself!)

As you can see in the pictures, I haven't perfectly, BH&G-curated the space; this is our real, lived-in kitchen.  I'm sharing this as an encouragement and hopefully inspiration to those of you that, like me, do not have a cute vintage home or healthy budget to start with. You can still have a cute home with a bit of creativity, treasure-hunting, and patience.  Here are some of my top tips for decorating a vintage kitchen on a budget and in a rental space:



Flashback Summer: Decorating a Renter's Kitchen on a Budget, Vintage Style

1. Pick a color scheme and stick to it.  The main colors of my whole home are red, navy, sea foam, and pops of yellow.  Sticking to these colors brings cohesion to small spaces.


Flashback Summer: Decorating a Renter's Kitchen on a Budget, Vintage Style
hanging fruit basket
Flashback Summer: Decorating a Renter's Kitchen on a Budget, Vintage Style

2. Don't be afraid of color.  Rental homes are notorious for bland, neutral color schemes in paint and carpet.  Don't be afraid of brightly colored art and even furniture to add spice to your space.


Flashback Summer: Decorating a Renter's Kitchen on a Budget, Vintage Style
Royal Albert "Polka Rose" design, vintage crystal, and vintage jadeite, Hoosier cabinet
Flashback Summer: Decorating a Renter's Kitchen on a Budget, Vintage Style
I've reused giant kimchi jars for my flour, sugar, and rice
3. Be alright with accumulating things slowly.  My husband and I finally feel like we have a fully decorated and equipped kitchen after two and half years of accumulating wedding gifts and tracking down furniture pieces at flea markets.  We spread out purchases, particularly large ones like our kitchen table and Hoosier cabinet, and it helped us keep our budget in balance.  You don't have to have it all at once!


Flashback Summer: Decorating a Renter's Kitchen on a Budget, Vintage Style
reusable "paper" towels, my chore card box, spoon rest, jadeite shakers, small Mexican pottery piece
4. Look for unique, vintage pieces, even if it takes longer to find them.  This also ties in with accumulating slowly.  As many of you know, looking for vintage pieces is usually a long-haul hunt for just the right item at just the right price.  We found all of our furniture in flea markets and antique malls. It not only means you get prices usually a bit cheaper than buying a brand new piece, it means your kitchen has unique vintage flair that won't be found anywhere else!  It's worth the wait to skip the big box store and wait for the perfect piece.


Flashback Summer: Decorating a Renter's Kitchen on a Budget, Vintage Style
upcycled vintage handtowel by Mona Carrier, our framed wedding invitation
Flashback Summer: Decorating a Renter's Kitchen on a Budget, Vintage Style

5.  Paint, paint, paint, paint, paint.  Paint is a renter's best friend.  I keep a supply of spray paints in my home colors (red, yellow, navy, sea foam, and gold) on hand, particularly Rustoleum paints that are made to cover rust.  This allows me to customize pieces I find to perfectly coordinate, and colors are the same throughout the room. 


Flashback Summer: Decorating a Renter's Kitchen on a Budget, Vintage Style
I added blue quilt binding bias tape to plain red curtains. These used to be in our living room (1 and 2).
6. Look for functional decor.  You'll see in my kitchen that a lot of the things that act as decor is actually functional as well.  The saran wrap/foil/parchment holder above the sink, the letter holder that holds my little recipe pamphlets, the plate rack that displays my pie pans, the peg shelf that holds both my cookbooks and colorful aprons.  Find storage that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing!


Flashback Summer: Decorating a Renter's Kitchen on a Budget, Vintage Style
vintage aprons and headscarves for keeping my clothing nice while cooking and cleaning
7. Small nail and screw holes are where it's at. Many rental companies require things hung on walls to be small enough to be held by nails or small screws.  This doesn't have to throw off your decorating! Hang large posters to make big statements with only one nail hole.  Hang shelves with built in pegs or hooks for extra storage that only uses two screw holes.  Find pieces that pack a large design or function punch without needing to be heavily secured to a wall.


Flashback Summer: Decorating a Renter's Kitchen on a Budget, Vintage Style
The middle pie plate was used for our wedding pie
Do you have a vintage-style kitchen or a rental space?   What would be some of your top tips for decorating?  (If you have a link to a photo, please share it!)

P.S. For my bloggers/photographers out there... I majorly struggle with indoor lighting when windows don't allow a lot of natural light in.  Do you have any tips/links to help account for yellow indoor light?

16 comments

  1. Your kitchen is absolutely charming! Taking pictures indoors is an absolute pain, but my suggestion is to get friendly with your camera's custom white balance setting. Generally the process involves taking a picture of a plain white surface (like a bit of white wall or a piece of printer paper), setting the white balance to custom, and telling it to use that picture to calibrate.
    -Frances (Polka Polish) (Google doesn't like me right now...)

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    1. I definitely need to be more competent with my white balance settings, that's for sure. I'm thinking I also just need to slow down and adjust the settings as the light changes near windows and such, instead of just zooming through the room. Good advice!

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  2. Your kitchen is gorgeous- you have wonderful taste! I also want to say how nice itis to read of other people with rental house disasters! No cats in the attic here, but our flat has a serious mildew problem every winter. We've been here for almost two years now, but we've finally decided we are going to look for somewhere cleaner. It will be a relief to have a space I can finally feel good about decorating!

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    1. Ack, we had mildew and mold issues too!!! They're terrible. Yes, one can only do so much with elbow grease. Sometimes you've got to call it and move on. Best of luck in your search!

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  3. Ooh, I love your kitchen! It's gorgeous and looks really comfortable. Your decoration choices work so naturally together.

    I've been struggling a little with this because, while our kitchen is truly wonderful for a rental (one 10' wall features just solid granite countertop; who am I to complain?) it's COMPLETELY 70's CHEAP DRAB! Dark, cruddy, falling-apart cabinets, dark tile, blech! I can't change those things.

    Two things I've done -- I put up fabric buntings (pretty much any colorful textile makes a kitchen look so much happier, in my opinion) and mounting trinket shelves on available wallspace, where I can put my favorite mugs, creamers, vintage teacups and such. I find little mini shelving units all the time at thrift stores -- definitely functional *and* great vintage-style decoration!

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    1. That is very similar to how our last kitchen looked! Very dark, mismatched cupboards, janky... but I did things similar to what you described. Bright linens and pretty things always help!

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  4. So cute! After 7 years of renting, we decided to paint our current apartment (with the landlord's permission of course!) and it has helped so much! In our old apartment, we stuck with colorful curtains, rugs and furniture to add pops of color.

    We got some cheap led video lights from Amazon and they are more blue white than yellow white. I pull them out to photo or video and they really help balance out the yellow light bulbs we have in our house.

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    1. Oooo, that's a really good idea. We had daylight bulbs in our other house and I did like them. Good call!

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  5. Wonderful! Command strips are my best friend for hanging pictures of all kinds and weights. We live in a row home, and have a ton of masonry walls (including interior walls) and so there are a lot of places we literally cannot put a hole in the wall unless we want something big and permanent. Command strips to the rescue! They work really well, and if you use several, you can hang larger pieces with ease. When you want to move something, just pull them up, no fuss no muss!

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    1. Masonry walls are definitely a problem, but Command hooks ARE so helpful! Definitely always a good idea to keep a stash of those on hand.

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  6. Loved reading this post today. My pop and I will be restoring a 40s/50s house this winter. The kitchen is a long way off but this post was fun to see. I agree, collect things slowly . . no need to have it all at once. But . . that's why I'm collecting things now so that when I can move in, I'm set. Paint is a huge budget saver too. We plan on keeping the kitchen largely as is but some coats of paint. We predict paint alone will save the original cabinets. Can't wait to see what else you will do with the rest of the place.
    Jennie from theuglydame.blogspot.com

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  7. You officially have the cutest kitchen! I love how you are using your functional vintage pieces as decor. I'm like that too- I can't have too much clutter sitting around. And you have a lovely collection of jadeite too.
    Oh, and for combatting a yellow cast, try adjusting your white balance setting on your camera. It will help some, even if it's not perfect.
    The Artyologist

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    1. Aw, thank you so much!
      And yes, I think I'm going to have to do some major white balance practice. Argh.

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  8. I'd second tweaking the white balance setting on your camera. Alternatively, if there's nothing moving within the scene you can put your camera on a tripod or stable surface and set a long shutter speed, then you won't need the light on, natural light will do.

    (Or you could just whip it into Photoshop/some other photo editor and remove the colour cast in a single click.)

    I tried having a deco-influenced house style but it's ended up more 'Victorian traveller' in style, probably because there's a lot of dark wood and stuff we've picked up on our travels. I'm not fighting it, it's clearly natural for us.

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  9. I adore your kitchen. Such great tips for decorating while renting.

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  10. These are some great tips. I have to say that cat has great aim... though that totally sucks. Sounds like this guy is breaking a bunch of laws by renting out a place that is in such bad condition. I don't think I have ever rented from a place that wasn't questionable. Mold being the main issue. Now that my husband and I bought a home, we are amazed at how much better our allergies are, and I don't get migraines nearly as often.

    If you don't use Photoshop (there is an auto color correct option that I find does a really good job) you might want to look at cooler colored light bulbs. They are a pain to find, but they omit a cooler light that is more like natural sunlight. It is something to keep in mind next time a bulb goes out, but usually you will want to replace all the bulbs at once because you will notice how yellow the light was all the time in your room when on lamp is yellow and the other is blue.

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