A Photographic Look at My Past Kitchens

If Nancy Meyers is known for her spectacular movie kitchens, I could be known for my spectacularly bad rental kitchens. One thing that my parents have always taught me is to live below your means. That way you always have savings for a bad day and can spend money on life experiences. I certainly took this advice to heart as I moved from one apartment to the next, each featuring a uniquely terrible kitchen. Part of the reason I am so excited about our current kitchen renovation is because I have never had a nice kitchen in my adult life (I’m 34). I’ve had livable kitchens, but it will feel so good to cook, bake, and entertain in a beautiful space! Let’s walk down memory lane and take a photographic look at my past kitchens.

My college apartment kitchen

It took me a while to find a picture of this kitchen that didn’t have empty bottles of alcohol in it. Or someone doing a beer bong. My college apartment kitchen didn’t see a whole lot of cooking, but it did host a lot of parties. Looking back at the pictures, it was tiny and probably had not been updated since the 80’s. However, it was perfectly adequate for college students and for $375/month, I can’t complain.

My 1st postgrad apartment

This was our housewarming party and we had already started an empty wine bottle collection. The height of interior decorating. I feel like anyone who lived in Chicago in the 2010s had one apartment kitchen that looked like this. Just a wall of cabinets with the bare minimum, 90’s oak and white cabinets, and a giant radiator. Like my college apartment, this kitchen was perfectly adequate for my lifestyle at that point. My friend Kim and I were just so excited to have our own apartment in the city. I’ll remember that feeling far longer than I’ll remember this kitchen.

My first solo apartment kitchen

My gosh I adored this apartment. It was old and had issues, but it was the first time I lived alone and could experiment with decorating in a bigger way. This was also the first time in my adult life that I got more into cooking. The kitchen didn’t have any countertops (peep the cutting boards on the stove) but I figured out how to make some great meals in there. The rest of the apartment was much cuter than the kitchen and I’ll always be thankful for my time living there.

My Philadelphia row house kitchen

I don’t have anything nice to say about this place. If you want to read the horror story that was living in this home, I go into a lot of details in this post. In summary, it was filthy, crumbling, freezing, and just plain ugly. The picture above is the after. I had painted the back door, put hardware on the mismatched cabinets, painted the walls a fresh coat of white, painted the trim, and doused the place in bleach. To put a positive spin on this experience, I did adopt Rigby and meet Colin 1 month before moving out!

My New Jersey apartment kitchen

Other than the floor, this was probably my most decent apartment kitchen. I painted the walls mint and added the runner to match the countertops. It had a lot more counterspace than I was used to, which was helpful as I continued my cooking journey. The major downfall of this apartment was the lack of central air. It was in the middle of a row of storefronts with upstairs apartments, so it didn’t get ANY air flow. The summer, and sometimes spring and fall, were brutal. I’m glad I don’t live there anymore, but it was an overall positive experience.

Things I’ve never had in previous kitchens

Granite, marble, or quartz countertops
A dishwasher
A garbage disposal
Decent counterspace
A backsplash
Anything other than chipped and stained laminate floor
Good lighting

I didn’t list these things out to complain. I am a grown up and made the decision to live where I did when I did. But I am looking forward to having all the things I’ve never had in the past! I truly get butterflies thinking about how nice the new kitchen will be and can’t wait to cook for family and friends, host tons of parties, and enjoy dinner each night with just Colin 🙂 Hope you enjoyed this photographic look at my past kitchens. What have your past kitchens looked like? And what do you dream about having in your kitchen one day?!