I’ve always believed that, whether you rent or own, you deserve a space that feels like home. But the truth is, for the last seven years, my LA rental hasn’t embodied this conviction. I moved into the studio in 2018, and though I didn’t expect to stay as long as I have, great neighbors and a perfect location have made it hard to leave. Throughout this time, I have updated different parts of the unit—but I’d always avoided the kitchen, never feeling like I was a “serious enough” cook to warrant anything grand. For years, I just kept telling myself it was “fine for now.” But not anymore. A new cookie-baking obsession combined with the realization that pinning dream kitchens without action was pointless brought me to my senses. I was also craving a project and was even looking at friends’ spaces for ways to help them. Then it hit me: Why not tackle my own? I wasn’t leaving anytime soon, and I deserved a kitchen I loved. It was time to stop putting it off.
Before I moved in, the unit was given the landlord special: white-on-white cabinets, a single warped shelf wasting feet of valuable vertical space, and blinds that kept the cupboards from fully opening. But for a studio, the kitchen footprint was generous and full of potential. What it needed was intention–and a budget that ideally stayed under $500. For years, I’d been drawn to warm oxblood kitchens—they were all over my Pinterest boards!—and imagined features like open shelving along the tall blank wall. I had the vision, but before going bold I wanted a second opinion.
I first met designer Audrey Scheck at an event years ago, and since that meeting I knew she was the perfect person to help translate the look I’d been dreaming about. She transformed my years of Pinterest inspiration into a real-life mockup, complete with links to affordable products (a criteria was I had to achieve a polished look on a budget) and styling ideas for items I already had, like books and pictures.
She even gave me a version with a cream palette too, but after an Instagram poll (and my grandma’s decisive vote), the ruby red kitchen was the clear winner. With the official green light and Scheck’s plan in hand, I went in the only way I know how: completely DIY from start to finish.
I never set a strict budget for this project—my goal was simply to spend where it mattered and save where I could. With a pretty good sense of what the basics like paint and wood would cost me, I loosely set $500 as a rough ceiling with a healthy buffer. In the end, I spent $325, which made the transformation all the more satisfying.
Even when this project was nothing more than a Pinterest board, I knew one thing for certain: I could change everything, but if the floors stayed the same, it’d all be a pointless exercise. Every kitchen I’d pinned had flooring that grounded the space—meaning my gray-brown roll-out linoleum (the kind where you can’t tell if the floor’s dirty or clean) just wasn’t going to cut it. While scrolling socials one day, I came across the Chris Loves Julia peel-and-stick tiles from WallPops, and I was immediately in love. They were renter-friendly, high quality, and affordable at $20 for 10 tiles. In total, I needed seven packs and was kindly gifted five of those. The remaining two took $40 out of the budget.
It was probably the most important purchase I made: The tiles became the anchor of the whole design. I brought a sample to the paint store, which helped me select Rumors by Behr for the cabinets—coincidently, their 2025 Color of the Year. Bold and saturated, it complimented both the oxblood tiles and subtle red veining in my countertops. The added benefit? There was now no need to change the counters in any way.
In total, I spent $90 on the tiles and the paint (including the warm white wall color called Swiss Coffee). These purchases cost only 18% of my total budget while delivering some of the most impactful visual changes.
Deciding on the details
Only once the foundation was set did I move on to the details. Scheck suggested stunning brass knobs from Rejuvenation, and I loved them…until I realized that, at $17 each, 10 of them would swallow up a third of my budget. So I defaulted to my never-fail approach: Find the dream item then hunt for its budget-friendly twin. A reverse-image search led me to several dupes, and after comparing the weight and finish of them all, I landed on the winning set—10 knobs for $26 from Amazon—that looked remarkably close to the original and earned Scheck’s stamp of approval.
To tie everything together, I cleaned the existing hinges and spray-painted them gold—a tiny lemonade-budget tweak that made the whole kitchen feel custom.
Other transformative shifts came from tiny hands-on touches. My stark white dishwasher, for example, stuck out like an eyesore against the new bold palette, so I wrapped it in a $5 peel-and-stick wallpaper, then painted it with Rumors to match. Completely reversible, it packs a serious renter-friendly punch for now. For the built-in fold-down table, I used a $7 wood-grain contact paper from Amazon to take it from an entirely scuffed, pumpkin-toned surface to a warm and inviting tabletop that actually inspires me to sit down and work (yes, it’s my desk too).
Another unexpected MVP was the chair. Its original cool-toned gray fabric flattened the space, and a DIY upholstery job wasn’t possible based on its design. After many sleepless nights debating whether to just replace it altogether, a 3 a.m. TikTok scroll introduced me to someone painting a bright blue couch, resulting in a surprisingly stylish sand sofa in the end. Until that moment, I had no idea you could paint fabric, but I was certainly intrigued.
After diving deeper down the rabbit hole of fabric-painting techniques, I learned that the secret lies in a specific mixture: equal parts water, acrylic paint, and fabric softener (Downy was the recommended choice to keep the fabric as soft as possible). I started by roughly sanding the chair, then lightly misting the surface with water before applying the three-part mixture. Using a Sherwin-Williams sample pot in Natural Linen, I applied three coats to transition the chair from dark gray to a lighter beige-like finish. While there’s been a slight change in the fabric’s finish, it’s barely noticeable and still perfectly comfortable to sit on while working at my desk.
The touches I cherish most are the ones that cost almost nothing. On one shelf sits a photo of my mom as a teenager helping my grandma in the kitchen back home in Australia. It gives the kitchen an undeniable warm sentiment and soul.
My grandpa was the one who taught me everything I know about building and renovating, so it was special to have shown him pictures of the kitchen when it was close to completion. He passed away while writing this, just weeks shy of his 100th birthday. I’ve since added a picture of him to that shelf too. Having him there feels grounding and like a tiny anchor in the room.
I also crocheted a couple of potholders and made the small artwork above my desk. None of it cost much, but together, these personal pieces are what make the kitchen feel unmistakably mine.
What I wanted most was for this kitchen to feel upgraded, practical, and genuinely inviting. Despite its modest footprint, it needed to support all parts of my day—from breakfast to working at my desk to having friends over for dinner—without ever feeling overstimulating or boxed in.
The bold color, new floors, hardware, shelves, and small sentimental details now all work together to support my routines and reflect the people and things I care about. Even the custom café curtains (kindly gifted from The Great Curtain Company), hung on a $5 Walmart rod I spray-painted to match the hardware, is a perfect example of how I mixed high and low throughout.
For well under my $500 budget, the kitchen transformed from a tolerated afterthought into a space that finally feels like mine. It’s no longer just a kitchen—it’s my kitchen and the true heart of my home.
Shop products inspired by this ruby kitchen
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This story is part of Room Receipts, where we get real about the costs behind one well-designed room. From big budget spenders to thrifty thinkers, we’re talking to people from different worlds about their worth-it splurges, budget hacks, and purchase regrets. We’re always on the hunt for cool homes with a unique story, so if you’re interested in being featured tell us more about your space here.
