Awwwww…. rental living.  You guys know we are living in a rental until we get our house built.  Our plan, first, is to build a barn on our wooded property.  The lower level of the barn will be Deb’s workshop and the upper level will be living space which will eventually be my office.  We hope to get that done as soon as possible so we can be out there to answer any questions the contractors may have.  In the meantime… here we are.  To be honest, this is the first time I have ever lived in a rental in my entire life since I bought my first house at 20 years old.  It has taken some adjustments.

The main adjustment is not being able to change some of the things that I don’t like.  The owner let us paint the walls and the kitchen cabinets.  But quite frankly, I don’t want to put money into a house that isn’t mine, ya know! ????????‍♀️ I have come up with some solutions for eyesores in a rental that cost little to no money.  Because lots of you are in the same rental situation, I thought I would share them with you as they come up.

Call me spoiled…

BUT the last several homes I’ve owned have had windows above the kitchen sinks….. along with a chandelier.   ????  The big house in the woods didn’t have one originally.  It had two can lights, one on each side of the kitchen sink but no chandelier.  I mentioned to Deb one day how much I would love one.  Deb:  “Go get one and I will put it in for you.  All I have to do is pull electricity from one of the can lights to the middle.  It won’t take long at all.”  That very day, I ran to our area home improvement store and got myself a little chandelier.

Six hours into the project….. I said, “OK… seriously…. it’s not that big of a deal.  Just forget it.”  Deb, “Oh no.  I’ve worked for six hours and I’m not giving up.”   Something about the way the beams ran, blah blah blah…  But eventually, she got it.  I think they look so pretty above kitchen sinks.  If you have to stand and do dishes, you may as well stand under a chandy.  ????????‍♀️  Oh…and if you missed it… I told you how we hung a chandelier on the ceiling where there is no electricity.

How to Hide an Ugly Light Above the Kitchen Sink for Free

A lot of older homes don’t have a window above the kitchen sink, let alone a chandelier.  What I have found is that lots of homes have the long, fluorescent, under-the-cabinet style lights.  And most of them are pretty ugly.  Um……. this would be a hard NO from me. ???????? Again, since this is a rental, I don’t want to spend any of my money to make changes.  I have come up with a simple solution to hiding those ugly things that will only put two small screw holes UNDER the upper cabinet above the sink which will never be detected.

We added a piece of trim to the cabinet, using two small screws, which in turn hides the ugly light above the sink.  I wanted a chippy piece to add some texture, but you could really use anything.  You can use scrap wood cut to size and paint it the color of your cabinets.  If your cabinets aren’t painted, you could use an architectural piece or a any type of sign you pick up at the store.

Like these…….

Where to Begin

Start by cutting a scrap piece of wood the length of your cabinets underneath where the UGLY light is located.  Attach that scrap board UNDER the cabinet on each side using two short screws with your driver.  I keep this one in my toolbox because it is well under $20.  And it is perfect for little projects like this.

You then attach your architectural piece, chippy board, sign, etc, to THAT board you just hung using two screws.  Deb likes to use trim screws because they have such a small head and normally burrow into the wood never to be seen.

And that’s it.  Whether you are in a rental or your own home, this is an easy and basically free solution to solving an eyesore… the UGLY kitchen fluorescent light above the kitchen sink.  It can easily be removed when you leave and will look like it was never there.

Keep watching for little tips on how we are creating a comfortable and pretty place that we call home for the time being on little to no money.   I have a few more tricks up my sleeve.

Do you guys have one of these ugly kitchen lights?  Like I said above, if I have to stand and do dishes, I may as well look at something a little more exciting than that.  What do you think?  Let me know over on Facebook and Instagram where I show LOTS of behind the scenes in our stories.