Here I am sitting in my new apartment, salivating at all the DIY’s to come. I know, I know I’m crazy to move now after I’ve put so much work into my place, but I get equality excited for all the new projects to come. Here’s a roundup of before and after photos of my garden rental.

Mudroom/Entry

This room has a really pretty tile that looks like marble. This is the one room in the house (besides the bathroom) that I didn’t paint. I liked the blue-ish gray and thought it fit well in the space. I picked up these set of lockers from the Madison-Bouckville Antique Show in 2017. My stepdad is an amazing craftsman that will build me anything I ask for. This trunk was originally built for my college dorm for more storage space but has stayed with me over the years. He also built the stand for the lockers.

I added the peg-board to organize all the things needed for coming and going - sunglasses, keys, dog leash, treats, etc!

Living Room

This is the first room I did in the house. When I moved in the walls were painted this off-white, mellow-yellow color that just doesn’t bode well for a basement “garden” rental. When you don’t receive maximum natural light, having bright white walls really does wonders.

The Niagara Falls (free download below!) and Louie print are my favorite parts of this room. I took the falls photo when I was on the Maiden of the Mist a few years ago and just printed as a color engineer print - only $12! I stapled it to a wood frame I got from Amazon and - PRESTO, a beautiful piece of artwork that is the focus of the room. Louie’s black and white portrait was an iPhone photo that I also printed as an engineer print for only $4!

Boyyyy do I love contact paper! I covered the pink countertop with a white contact paper, but since Louie spends a lot of his time up there, it did get torn up a bit after 2 years (hence why it’s missing now!)

The front closet here had a hanging bar that originally housed half of my clothes. To make it easier I created an extra hanging space in the bedroom closet to hold all my clothes in one place and then turned the front closet into an office and crafting space.

It received the same bright white paint and I purchased the removable wallpaper from Amazon for a splash of color.

Before:

After

Hallway/Dining

I gave the walls & wood beam a fresh coat of bright white paint. There’s no dedicated dining space in this apartment due to the size, but I do have a table!

The other half of the hall, I ultimately used as a “laundry room” space (check out how I do my laundry with a portable washer & dryer). I picked up a curtain track to block off the corner and custom built laundry table. Now, I have plenty of extra storage and a dedicated space to fold clothes.

Before:

After:

Kitchen

This was my most fun project of the whole house that I did a dedicated post on. I’m so proud of how far it’s come and I really do love cooking in here now!

Before:

After:

Bedroom

The bedroom is quite big for a basement rental. It features a really pretty fireplace and a massive closet, that’s usually rare in old brownstone homes. The walls in the bedroom were the same muddy yellow as the front room and the fireplace was just screaming for a fresh coat of paint! I gave the mantel the same accent mustard yellow that’s featured in my bedding and dresser.

I forgot to grab before photos! *Facepalm*

Bathroom

This is the one room in the house I was unable to get to. I tried many things to cover the wallpaper from contact paper to this temporary wallpaper application but alas, none worked.

Patio

One of the selling points of this rental was the large outdoor space it had available. There was plenty of room for a dining table, accent chairs, and even a grill. Something I’ve never had in a rental before. I bought some garage flooring interlocking tiles to put down since the large slate times were uneven and often hard to sweep and keep clean. It also gave the space just a little bit more of a put-together feel.

All-in-all this place is in my top two favorite places I’ve lived. It’s great to be to walk to work, the outdoor space was wonderful and the closet space is just so unheard of!

Here’s a high-res download of my Niagara Falls photo that you can print for your own space! Happy Decorating!