5 Bits of Hardware That Can Totally Upgrade Your Rental

2015-07-25

5 Bits of Hardware That Can Totally Upgrade Your Rental

Making a Big Change Can Take So Little!

One of our more popular posts from a while back was all about decorating your apartment without annoying your landlord. Well, it’s been a while since that post, and in that time, we’ve had a few clever tenants teach us a thing or two about what a handy person can do to their rental without upsetting the owner or the landlord. Here’s eight of the best ideas:

 

Replace Cabinet and Cupboard Knobs and Handles

With a screwdriver, a safe storage place, and a bunch of new (or old, if that’s your thing!) knobs and handles, you can dramatically change the feel of your kitchen, bathroom, or any other room that has cabinetry. If you doubt that ‘just knobs’ can have an effect on a room, let us prove it.

Drawers with swapped knobs.

How crazy is that? Same shape, same screws, same everything, but the switch from ‘clinical’ to ‘soft and inviting’ is instantaneous.

 

Replace Door Knobs

Lots of people have a bit of a fear of messing with doorknobs, but as long as you’re not replacing ones that require keys to unlock (for that you need the help of a locksmith), it’s pretty easy, all things considered. And much like the cabinets above, the effect it has on a space can be absolutely profound. Check it out:

A back door with a swapped handle.

Again, same style of knob — the only thing changed is the color — and look at how different it makes the ambiance. Can you imagine the change if we had switched to a completely different style of knob?

 

Hang Up Curtains

Installing curtain bars over a window currently graced with blinds is fairly straightforward — except that you don’t want to put holes in your wall (or, more accurately, we don’t want you to put holes in your wall!) Fortunately, that’s one of the many reasons why they invented Command products — a few of the heavy-duty hooks or hanging strips can be used to hold up a curtain rod and the hanging curtains with little issue. And it’s amazing what it can do to a room!

A living room window with and without curtains.

 

Replace the Kitchen Sink Fixture

This one is a bit more complex than the others, and if you’re not comfortable working with plumbing, you might want to either hire a plumber or skip this one entirely. On the other hand, it’s not that difficult as long as you’re careful, and the results speak for themselves:

A kitchen sink with a new faucet.

Not only does the kitchen look more modern and sleeker, but the added functionality of that swan-neck faucet makes it a lot easier to fill stock pots, wash large pans, and so on.

 

Replace Drawer Pulls

This isn’t quite a screwdriver-ready project for one simple reason: not all drawer pulls have their attachment screws exactly the same distance apart. That means it’s possible to buy a bunch of new pulls, get them home, and find out too late that they won’t work — which can be a real bummer. But if you take an existing pull off, measure it, and then measure the ones at the hardware store, you can pull off transformations like this:

A set of drawers with all new pulls.

…and that’s so worth the extra effort, especially if your existing pulls are as awful as those brass cup-style ones.

 

The Key to Making It All Come Out Right In The End

Is making sure that you keep 100% of the original hardware and reinstall it flawlessly before you move out. Of course check with your landlord as they may allow you to leave your improvements as-is and give you a big thank you! Otherwise, as long as the move-in inspection pictures look just like the move-out inspection pictures, your landlord will be ecstatic that you took such good care of his fixtures and hardware — a win for all involved.

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