Refresh Your Small Apartment Kitchen with Spring Decor

Today begins the Bloggers’ Best Spring Tour 2023! And today we are going to see how to refresh your small apartment kitchen with spring decor!

REFRESH YOUR SMALL APARTMENT KITCHEN WITH SPRING DECOR

It’s the first day of spring, y’all!

What better way to start the season than with a small apartment kitchen tour?

Yep, you read that right!

After one year, this girl is finally biting-the-bullet and sharing the My Wee Abode 2.0 kitchen with spring decor!

By the way, if you want some spring inspo for your living area, take a look at Part 1 of my spring home tour this year!

But first…

It’s day one of the 2023 Bloggers’ Best Spring Tour hosted by my lovely friend, Kelly from The Tattered Pew.

small apartment kitchen spring decor collage of spring decor

Kelly has organized 30 amazing bloggers to bring to you spring decor inspiration, tips, and tricks. And let me tell ya, that ain’t no easy task! Thanks, Kelly, you are quite grand!

If you are dropping in by way of StoneGable, a big welcome to you! I always love all the inspiration and design ideas I learn from Yvonne! And I bet you were inspired by her home tour, too! She is an amazing designer, and an even more amazing friend!

And, of course, a huge hello with hugs and hearts to all the My Wee Abode family!

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If you are interested in joining the My Wee Abode ‘family’, feel free to subscribe below! Not only will you get ideas and solutions for living big in a small home, you’ll also get instant access to our Printable Library! (LOTS of spring art for your home for free!)

all the freebies!

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And, if you want to learn a wee bit more about me and my family, feel free to visit the My Wee Abode About page!

Now, let’s get to this tour!

The Courage to Share My Small Apartment Kitchen Spring Decor

Can I be totally transparent?

The kitchen in My Wee Abode is NOT my favorite…

I know, I know… You’ve heard this story before.

Y’all know I had a love-hate relationship with the dark shaker cabinets at the OG My Wee Abode. (Loved the style, hated the color!)

But y’all… these cabinets… these cabinets are old(er) and they are wearing out. At least the finish is wearing off (we won’t look too closely today).

Okay… here goes the first photo…

apartment kitchen with honey oak cabinets and spring decor — Could you see my eyes tightly squeezed shut and one eye peeking open when I inserted this photo?

And, can we just say “Hello, 1990s”… or maybe even 1980s?

small apartment kitchen spring decor kitchen with oak cabinets and spring decor — The cabinets are not two toned… I just need to learn some lighting tricks in the kitchen.

The cabinets are not two toned… I just need to learn some lighting tricks in the kitchen.

So, today I’m going to share how I’m living with my kitchen cabinets, and how I’m loving some aspects.

There IS hope! If you are not loving your kitchen, let’s learn how to work with it… in the spring!

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Use Spring Colors that Compliment Your Kitchen Spring Decor

This is the first time in a year that I have decorated the MWA kitchen for the spring.

Let me just say, it does make me happy.

Even though it’s just a few items (okay, maybe more than a few), it lightened my heart and made me ~~love~~ like my kitchen a bit more.

One of the things I did was to use colors that complimented the honey-oak cabinets in the kitchen.

The colors I used were mainly white and green and a few neutral tones.

small apartment kitchen spring decor egg tray and bunnies on counter with butterfly wall plaque — Dang it, I forgot to put the eggs in the tray in this pic!

White is always a good color to use in a honey-oak kitchen. It brightens the kitchen, and seems to neutralize the yellow tones.

white pitcher with spring flowers and gray bunnies in kitchen — Use a white pitcher with flowers that compliment your oak cabinets… next time, I probably WON’T use yellow!

Additional colors to use in a kitchen with honey-oak cabinets:

Muted colors, such as sage green or a blue with warm undertones
Natural wood tones that compliment the grain in the honey-oak color
Lavender and pale purples (or even a splash of bright purple )
Copper
Dark Amber, black, and dark gray (more for fall, but these look quite pretty with the honey-oak)
and, did I mention white… all the white!

Here are the eggs! And I really love the sage green in the kitchen.

small apartment kitchen spring decor green egg tray with brown eggs — I love using this tray in the morning… the eggs don’t roll off the counter.

Things I REALLY Like…

One thing I do like about my kitchen is the counters. The management was smart enough to have these laminate counters done in the colors of the cabinets AND the vinyl floors (see the photo above). Though it’s not the best, it does help coordinate the two colors… a teensy bit.

(By the way, on a total side note, if you have a sweet feline in your family, here’s some tips on how to stop cats from jumping on counters.)

Because my cabinet space is limited, these wood and metal planters are perfect for storing my dish towels and potholders on the wall. They are pretty and practical!

And the wood, gray metal, and green/gray towels work well with the oak cabinets.

These are from Hobby Lobby, but there are several options on Amazon:

Collections to Refresh Your Small Apartment Kitchen Spring Decor

Lately, I’ve been really trying to avoid ‘cute and adorable’. But this spring, my kitchen needed a little cuteness…

So, I broke out my little bunnies, in a BIG way!

small apartment kitchen spring decor collage of spring bunnies in kitchen

If you love to collect, then by all means use your collections in your home. And use what makes you happy!

My little bunny collection includes some white bunnies (the first ones I purchased), some metal ‘distressed’ bunnies, and a new set of tiny cement-gray bunnies.

These are perfect to display around the kitchen, and they greet me each morning which, again, takes my mind off the cabinet color.

Here are some sweet bunnies you might be interested in:

Spring Elements for a Small Apartment Kitchen Spring Refresh

Natural elements are my favorite aspect of decorating, for spring or any season.

Whether it’s faux or fresh flowers, live plants and greenery, or even dried natural elements, you just can’t go wrong with adding these to a small kitchen.

And you can even add these elements to a dorm kitchenette or any size kitchen!

gray bunny next to green kitchen scale filled with moss balls — That bunny wants to nibble on those moss balls, I’m thinkin’.

Be sure to use faux flowers that look real when you stand about three feet away
Use real and faux florals together to make faux look even better
Dried elements, like these moss/vine covered balls add a ‘fresh’ element and they last forever
Even using faux (or real) eggs in a tray can add a natural element that looks great for spring!

A Quick Peek at the Spring Entryway

The tiny entryway got a bit of a spring refresh, too!

small apartment kitchen spring decor entryway with spring decor

One thing I DO love about my cabinets? The large pantry wall in the entryway! (It’s on the right, and bit hard to see… take a closer look on my summer tour post.)

Next week, I’m looking forward to putting a little twist on the spring entryway at the Pinterest Challenge! Be on the lookout!

To Paint or Not To Paint Honey Oak Cabinets?

If I had it my way, I would paint these cabinets just like I did my bathroom cabinets in the loft apartment.

However, I live in a MUCH bigger community now (not a private landlord), and I’m pretty sure that the property manager would NOT let me paint the cabinets, even though it would increase the value of the apartment.

So, for now, I learn to live (and maybe even like?), my honey-oak cabinets.

If you have any suggestions for how to make these better, let me know!

BTW, I have already tested vinyl adhesive and it didn’t work… it lifted the finish off the cabinet (I did it on the kickboard… no one will ever know).

Next on the Tour…

Now, be sure to click on over Cottage on Bunker Hill. Jennifer is sharing some great ideas on how to refresh your living room for spring!

And be sure to come back here each day this week to visit all the homes on the 2023 Bloggers’ Best Spring Home Tours (see links below).

Bloggers’ Best Spring Home Tours

This week I am joining some of my blogging friends for the 2023 Bloggers’ Best Spring Home Tours. Thirty talented and creative women will be opening their homes for you to tour all week long. You can visit each spring home tour by clicking the links below.