Mobile home rentals have increased significantly since the housing collapse. Renting a mobile home is a smart financial decision for many of us – there’s no large down payment needed and it removes high maintenance and tax costs associated with homeownership. Credit scores don’t have to be perfect either. With the housing market, you never know what could happen but renting takes all that worry off the table.
A mobile home rental is a smart choice for many families.
As great as renting can be, there is a challenge with a mobile home rental – the decorating. If you enjoy decorating and updating your home frequently, renting could pose an issue since remodeling and permanent changes are discouraged or completely forbidden by most landlords.
You can still decorate your mobile home rental – just not permanently.
Americans spend a great deal of time in their kitchens and living rooms, more so than any other room in the house. Those that enjoy cooking and entertaining tend to spend their time in the kitchen, which is a great place to begin transforming your mobile home rental.
Using paint, accessories, and some tricks from design professionals will help you update the kitchen in your mobile home rental easily. Here are our 10 favorite kitchen decor ideas for mobile home rentals along with color ideas.
Painting the Kitchen
One of the best ways to personalize your mobile home rental is with paint. Since kitchens are the most used room in the home, it’s a great place to start a makeover. Giving your kitchen a new look will make your entire home seem fresh and new!
Yellow is a Top Choice for Kitchens in Mobile Home Rentals
Of course, you should always check with your landlord for permission to paint. Some landlords will allow you to paint the home as long as you agree to paint it back to the original color before moving out so you may want to steer clear of dark colors – that’s why yellow is a great choice.
With the landlord’s permission, new color on the wall can change the entire atmosphere of a living space. just like this beautiful kitchen above from Better Homes and Gardens. A bright, sunny yellow has been shown to increase happiness, add to energy levels, and make the room larger and inviting.
For small kitchens, painting the walls a shade of yellow opens up the space and makes the room brighter. By adding white trim, the kitchen is transformed into a happy, energetic area perfect for cooking, sitting at the table enjoying coffee and a chat with a friend, or baking cookies on a cool evening.
If your hesitant to use yellow on the walls you can always add a yellow detail or two. Bright yellow is a perfect accent color for a kitchen! The Sante Fe Mobile Home we featured a while back is a great example of using yellow as an accent color:
Orange Accents are Fun
Another great option is orange. The 2012 Pantone color of the year was an orange tone called Tangerine Tango and it is a beautiful color. Orange matched with white is always a winner my book!
The kitchen makeover below, found on theindestudio.com, is a great example of using orange on the walls of a kitchen. Paint really makes a difference in a kitchen!
Using orange as a wall color or accent color has been known to increase enthusiasm, and enthusiasm from a dinner guest is a positive thing. If you tend to shy away from the bright orange, use it for accent pieces such as dish towels, dish rags, canisters, or a bright orange tea kettle sitting on the stove. Lively pictures hung on the wall with orange flowers is another great option and brings color and life into your room.
The kitchen below, found on midwestliving.com, is a beautiful example of using orange accents in a kitchen:
Blue is Beautiful
If your favorite color is blue, go for it. Keep in mind, however, that blue tends to be calming and can feel cold when combined with natural light. Dark blue has also been known to cause sadness. Using a periwinkle or turquoise may help the kitchen feel less hassled and encourage family and friends to relax with a cup of tea after the end of the day.
The kitchen below, found on HomeTalk, is a great example of using a soothing blue on the walls and cabinetry.
When transforming your kitchen, there are so many options. Painting the walls, cabinets, and trim is just a start. Some may not have that option due to landlord rules and regulations in mobile home rentals, but that doesn’t end the possibilities for personalization.
Accessories Instantly Update a Kitchen!
Bright colored accessories such as serving plates, sugar and creamer containers, tea kettles, and small appliances such as the microwave can be purchased in just about any color imagined. Mixing and matching designs and colors draw welcome attention to detail and contribute to your own happiness.
Add Plants and Flowers
Potted plants and flowers sitting on counters, in the windowsill, or hung in the corners bring life and color into the room. For a minimal amount of money and little work, flowers and greenery are a great addition to your kitchen. By using bright colored or decorative pots, you can easily add your own personal touch to your mobile home rental without structural changes and without spending hours redecorating.
Add Rugs
Don’t forget to add a throw rug or two for accents. One in front of the kitchen sink not only looks great but helps bare feet not be cold and feels good. Below is one of my favorite featured homes here on Mobile Home Living. I called it the Divine Double cause it was just so beautiful has a great kitchen with bright red/orange accents, including plush, colorful rugs:
Professional Tips and Tricks to Update a Kitchen in a Mobile Home Rental
Temporary Back Splash
A backsplash will update a kitchen as nothing else can! You don’t have to spend a lot of money to give your kitchen a backsplash either. I once used sticky-backed floor ’tiles’ to create a faux backsplash and it looked great! You can also use contact paper, mirrors, wallpaper…just about anything you want!
A company called Facade produces a temporary backsplash panel that is installed with heavy-duty tape. You can buy them from your home improvement store for about $20 a panel and they come in countless designs:
Remove the Cabinet Doors
Open shelving is a big trend these days. If your kitchen cabinets are hopeless and the landlord won’t let you paint them then perhaps removing them completely will give you a fresh a new look.
One of our featured homeowners here on Mobile Home Living removed her kitchen cabinets and it looks great. You can read more about the colorful single wide makeover shown below here:
Update the Cabinet Pulls
Cabinet knobs or pulls are a small detail that can make a big impact. You can spend a little money on new cabinet pulls or you can make your own like the DIY renter below did using their step-by-step instructions here:
Change the Window Treatments
As you put the finishing touches on your kitchen, don’t forget a great window treatment. You can opt for an upper scale wooden shade, shutters, or drapes, or go with less by using inexpensive curtains. A light and airy alternative to buying new curtains are to make a pair using old sheets. Many times you can find colorful sheets either in solid colors or prints at yard sales and second-hand stores.
Here are a few more ideas to update your kitchen:
- Line your drawers with colorful contact paper
- Install under cabinet lighting.
- Add slide-out cabinet storage. It’s removable so you can take it with you to your next home.
There are so many great ways to update a kitchen in a mobile home rental. Just have fun, be creative, and give your mobile home rental your own personal style that shows off your personality and creativity!
As always, thank you so much for reading Mobile Home Living! We appreciate you!
I just added some plugin LED strips under my kitchen cabinets that I found on Amazon for $15. They plug into any outlet and each light is about a foot long and will connect to another for as long as you want. You can also buy jumper chords. Here’s an (affiliate) link: https://amzn.to/34yk7LW
Hi, I just moved into a fairly new trailer and the previous people had a small kitchen fire. It’s got a island and the hood range is burnt. They painted over it, then covered it with aluminum foil. How do I add lighting to it? It’s not able to be fixed, and landlord is tight. Cabinets are ugly brown, 2 toned. Need some help with color and ideas.
Hi RJ,
I will be adding an article for that soon – don’t know how we over looked it. The instructions painting the vinyl coated wallboards we provide in this article is real close to what you will do with the laminated or vinyl wrapped cabinets. You need to clean it really well and use a good primer like Kilz and use thin coats of the best paint you can afford.
Here’s another article that may help, too: https://mobilehomeliving.org/cheap-backsplash-ideas-painting-tileboard/
Hi, love your site, very inspiring and helpful.
I want to paint my kitchen cabinets and found no information on the best way to do it on the kitchen renovation page.
Can you help?
Thank you
Hi Hunter!
Can you remove the trim around the side of the cabinet? That will give you a better indication of where the screws are (usually up high) or if there is a installation/bracket kit being used. You may need to look real close inside the cabinets for stickers or button covers (like they have when you buy a new piece of wood furniture and there’s little wooden buttons that goes into the holes to cover the screws up- I don’t know what those are called). They could also be using a lip/ledge system but you’d still see screws some where.
Good luck!
Question, my mobile is a 2006 Fleetwood. I want to remove some of the kitchen cabinets, but can’t find what’s holding them on the wall…… normally cabinets have screws holding them, from inside the cabinet. Any idea where to look?