Vinyl peel & stick tiles look nice in low traffic areas. In high traffic areas, its not long before they look really scratched, dull & dirty. And it takes 4 men 3 full days with expensive heat guns & scrapers to pull them up & sand down the glue for a new floor. I’d be really wary of them, except maybe for a guest bathroom. Otherwise you will save money in the long run to just save up for a nice floor that actually looks clean when you clean it.

Jennifer, thanks for sharing your experience with cheap vinyl tiles. I’ve never had that happen.

I wanted to share some quick ideas which are temporary or truly low cost. I painted the concrete floor in one basement kitchen, used porch paint over old stained linoleum, and applied the peel-and-stick tiles right over a disgusting apartment vinyl floor.

In each case, the quick fix made for a much better living situation than the existing floor.

I realize everyone may not share my decorating style, obsession with sunny kitchens, or dislike of refrigerator magnets! I hope that by sharing my own philosophy, you’ll hop in and discuss yours…and we’ll *all* benefit!

Great ideas!
I wanted to chime in on the peel and stick tiles. I have had good and bad experiences with them. The bad experience is when I did not take the time to put down the floor primer as they suggested. I also had glossy finish. The good experience I have had has been when I primed and used a tile that was not as shiny (not to see scratches). Either way they did exactly what Meredith says, brighten a very drab ares for cheap. I tend to use throw rugs as well, so that helps.
I am loving this blog and all the suggestions.
God Bless,
Michele

Merchant Ships,

I hope you didn’t take my comment the wrong way. I didn’t mean to sound flip, I just had a really really bad experience with it, and so did my IL’s. I know what it’s like to go insane in an ugly or dingy kitchen, believe me!

Oh, my kitchen is the pits! We live in university married housing that’s been around for more than forty years. We’ve got the ugliest gray, flecked linoleum. It never looks clean. And no space in the kitchen. I have just barely 4 square feet of counter space. Meaning, I have very little storage. It’s been a beast trying to get my kitchen to work for me.

I’ve learned that no matter how you rearrange it, there’s never any more space than you had to begin with–unless you get rid of stuff or move it elsewhere. I’ve just had the epiphany to move our company china out of the kitchen. The only problem is that in our 500 sq. ft. (with no closets) there’s not many other places to put things!

Mrs. B, I do try to keep my counters as clear as possible.

I have to say that my current kitchen is a dream come true, and I still keep the counters empty. I have one small counter (which is bigger than all my previous kitchen counters–I’ve always had tiny kitchens). I use like a buffet, with dishes in the cupboard above it. On that surface, I have a long print on a stand. It doesn’t jut out into the counter, though.

I really feel like kitchens have enough visual clutter. You don’t need decorative accessories there if you are trying to make a small space work better and feel bigger.

Instead, bring in pattern and color with a valance, decorative dishes or pictures hung on the walls, a colorful tea towel, or handpainted kitchen stool.

Hee hee! I have an 8-inch counter between my refrigerator and sink. No more than a family of one could possibly eat there!

I started with white counters, black and white floors (so far so good!), orange counters and backsplash, dark orange pinstripe curtains, brown stove, harvest gold stove hood, and no fridge or washer. (My kitchen is from the fifties and is thus also the laundry room. At least it has a double-sink!) Removing those dark orange curtains did wonders. Then I added a wallpaper border under the cabinets that was mostly black with some peach and tan, and having this instead of the dark orange curtains made my counters seem more peach than orange, which made me feel better about the kitchen. (If you feel weird about gluing it on, you can just use clear tape—that has held up for ten years so far!)

We built a pot rack over the stove (and fume hood) by first nailing up some two-by-fours so we could nail them directly into the ceiling studs. Then we added some strong metal towel-bar-looking things exactly where we wanted (aligning them with the studs would have been awkward) and then with some s-hooks, we were set. I decorate the walls with pot lids, cookie cutters, apple corer, kitchen shears, etc. (Warning: things used infrequently get dusty.) (If you are in an apartment, you can spackle the nail holes when you leave. Spackle is cheap and spackling is really fun, too.)

I set the microwave on four matching overturned mugs I don’t use. This could give me more space underneath, but mostly I like it because I can open the microwave door even if there are plates or bowls right in front of the microwave.

Next I’m getting a magnetic paper towel holder for the fridge.

The area under the sink is our only place for tall things. I got some of those plate racks so I can slide in cookie sheets, pizza pans, cutting boards, you get the idea. You may be able to store pot lids like this, too, or they might be too big to fit in the slots.

We also added a bookcase to the one wall in our dining room. It has all our cookbooks and music books, but also some big things that are hard to get in and out of cabinets like a gigantic mixer. And sometimes we stockpile more canned goods there.

Another idea is to turn a nearby closet into a pantry by adding some shelves. In my house, there’s a hallway closet nearby which would have been good. But someone did this to the broom closet on the far side of the dining room, which is fine, too. I store canned goods and all my extras. For example, I’ll have a small bottle of aspirin in the cabinet, but the large cheap one I refill it with in the pantry. When I make the last refill, I add that to my shopping list on my refrigerator.

I’m thinking of painting the inside of my pantry door with magnetic paint and moving all the memos off the fridge to this door, leaving only a few decorative magnets behind.

We have a smallish kitchen with a set of 4 drawers and 1 drawer beside the stove. I didn’t want to loose one of my drawers to my silverware. I got a picnic caddy from Target and use it to store my silverware. It has 3 compartments for forks, knives, and spoons. It also has a long compartment in the back for baby spoons etc. I keep it on my counter by the sink. It is great for my 3 year old DD. I set it down on the dishwasher and she can sort the silverware.

We also have a peel and stick kitchen floor(prior owners) and we HATE it. It has started to pull apart from each other leaving space between for dirt to stick. It never looks clean. I dread removing it.

I love the ideas. If I can only talk DH into painting the cabinets…..

Tricia

Love this! Great ideas. I am slightly new here and this is the first post I have read. We have always had tiny kitchens. The one we have now is the largest by far of any of them. I wholeheartedly agree with giving the kitchen a good scrubbing. It helps to put things into perspective:) I once read a story about a certain African village in which a woman was praised for her house keeping skills. She lived in a hut, had a dirt floor and no furniture except a table and two benches. The article said that though she had little, she did the best to take care of what she had. That inspired me to do the same.