Living in an apartment can be a drab experience. Fixtures are old and cheap, sockets don’t work, and the paint job can look like it was done by a passive aggressive teenager. But a renter looking to upgrade to a new apartment or purchase a home can find it exorbitantly expensive to do so.
Recently, TikToker Adrienne (@adrienneshow) discovered the joys of renter-friendly upgrades, inspiring many of her commenters to beautify their own surroundings.
Adrienne demonstrated her skills in a viral video that received 3.4 million views and and thousands of comments in response. With some simple hacks, like replacing her faucet, Adrienne filmed herself giving her bathroom a much-needed upgrade.
@adrienneshow Replying to @Shamecca26 replacing the faucet in my bathroom cost about $60 including the faucet and the wrench set. it immediately upgraded the space and its renter friendly! I saved all the old pieces so when I leave it can be installed right back. #bathroomfaucet #blackddecor #renterfriendly #apartmenttour #bathroommakeover #bathroomremodel #bathroomdecor #luxury ♬ FOREVER – Jessie Reyez & 6LACK
Adrienne first gives her audience some background on her living situation. “I’ve decided to stay and extend my lease, instead of getting a two bedroom that’s going to be about 1,300 dollars more a month,” she explained in the short demonstration. “So anyways, I’m making some renter friendly upgrades just to kind of fall back in love with my space.”
The short clip shows her replacing an old stainless steel faucet with a sleek, matte, black one.
The renter continued talking through the process of upgrading the apartment’s bathroom sink. “The sink was not necessarily hard. I’ve never done anything like this so it was a task and it was annoying. I had to watch a couple Youtube videos, take a break, take a breather, sit down.”
She admits there were moments of frustration. “At some point I was like who told you were Handy Manny, who told you were Bob the Builder. It was giving Dora the Explorer at best….because I had to explore all different types of stores.”
But in the end, the renter succeeded. The clip ends showing her tastefully decorated sink with matching accoutrements. Adrienne finishes her demonstration with an uplifting message: “You can do it. Because if I can do it, you sure can.”
Users were stunned by the process and jumped in the comments to discuss the cost of rent in relation to the amenities provided.
“Love this girly!!! Even if it’s not a forever home it’s important to love your space! It’s for you! It’s for you to like and feel nice,” a commenter said.
“Especially when these apts want to charge 2023 prices with 1990’s aesthetics lol. I love this idea! Save it — don’t leave that money on the table!” another added.
A third commiserated with the state of rental prices, saying, “It’s WILD that they want to charge luxury prices for the so-called luxury apartments.”
But not everyone agreed with this renter’s choice to upgrade an apartment that she didn’t own and some even warned against doing so just in case she caused damage to the rental.
“I would [never] upgrade an apt but make sure to keep your receipts so you can be compensated for upgrading THEIR PLACE or they charge you at the end fr,” one said.
This prompted several users to defend Adrienne’s upgrades.
“Your money, your space. All the power to you,” one user said.
“Y’all like “who doing all that in an apartment”…. NEWS FLASH: NOT EVERYONE WANTS TO PURCHASE A HOUSE,” wrote another.
Some renters shared that they liked the idea of making upgrades but weren’t confident enough to carry it through.
“I think about doing this but I don’t want to mess anything up,” one user said, to which Adrienne encouragingly replied, “As long as you keep all screws and parts [you’re] fine, this isn’t as difficult as it looks at all!”
The Daily Dot reached out to Adrienne for further comment via email.