Small + Cozy Apartment Renovation Project

Five years ago I took a big leap and bought a 130 year old, multi-family, fixer upper. I say it was a leap because at the time I had no real experience in renovating, no experience at all with rental properties, no one doing this alongside me sharing in the cost and the responsibility. Still this dream was so strong in my heart that I knew I had to go for it. And while I have shared quite a bit about the process and the renovations over on Instagram it felt like it was about time to finally get a blog post put together.

In this series of posts, I am sharing before and after photos of each of the three rental renovations. Starting with the smallest one of all; this cozy 400 square foot apartment.

Let’s just say whoever had painted this apartment was not afraid of color. Seriously, keep on scrolling to see what I mean. We quite appropriately named this apartment The Rainbow Apartment or The Strawberry Patch (again just keep on scrolling, you’ll see).

I knew I wanted to keep things neutral for a few reasons. First, since this is a rental I wanted to make sure that the color palette would work for anyone moving in. Second, I really wanted to brighten things up and allow this small space to feel as open as possible. And last, I wanted things to be as timeless as possible while still feeling up to date. White walls and black cabinets felt like a good way to make this happen.

You may have noticed I also added a refrigerator and additional counter space to the main living area. This was a must in the project because there was not a full kitchen when I purchased this home, only a sink and stove in a small nook. Of course, if I wanted to rent this as a stand alone apartment I needed to add a refrigerator and some extra counter space and storage.

I added a new sink, stove, and cabinets. I have since also added some open shelving above the sink for additional storage which really made things feel more complete. I still have it on the list to add a tiled backsplash to this area.

It probably goes without saying but this is the room that was very appropriately named The Strawberry Patch. Again, shoutout to the folks who weren’t afraid of color! The amount of primer and paint that had to go on these walls was pretty crazy. You might also notice that there is popcorn ceiling in here, actually in all of the before photos. This was one of the larger projects and spend for this unit. This apartment had popcorn ceilings with prior water damage so I ended up removing the popcorn ceiling entirely and replacing with a new sheetrock ceiling. It was 100% worth the investment in my opinion.

After all of that paint and primer, things were brightened up and kept neutral in the bedroom as well. I also added carpet to the bedroom instead of the vinyl plank flooring that was added to the rest of the apartment. Looking back, I think it would have been better to go with vinyl plank in the entire apartment to save on the cost of cleaning the carpets every time I have new tenants move in. The carpet will of course need to be replaced at some point and I will likely make the switch then.

I saved the wildest of the transformations for last. This bathroom was probably the grossest spot in the entire house before the renovation (which is saying a lot). The shower that was installed in the bathroom was an indoor/outdoor shower that I am not sure had ever been cleaned. This room was in seriously rough shape. Although, I do give the previous tenants credit for tying the shower curtain in with the rest of the color scheme.

This bathroom was the other big investment in this unit. The space is very limited here so I couldn’t do a lot but I had a shower custom built and added subway tile. The subway tile was, again, in the hopes of making this apartment feel up-to-date but also timeless. In my opinion, traditional subway tile (when done right) is one of those things that will always be in style.

Do you have a renovation project on your mind but aren’t sure where to start?

Follow along @thealteredabode for more cozy renovation inspiration.