This Rental Apartment's Green Kitchen Was Painted with Car Paint

How a TikToker Transformed a 740-Square-Foot Austin Rental into a Design Masterpiece

When most people think about decorating a rental apartment, they picture temporary solutions — removable wallpaper, peel-and-stick tiles, and furniture that works just as well in the next place. But TikToker Cody Gould threw that rulebook out the window entirely. His 740-square-foot Austin rental is a testament to bold creative thinking, featuring concrete walls, reclaimed architectural details, original artwork, and most strikingly, a kitchen painted entirely with car paint in a rich, vibrant shade of green. It's the kind of apartment that stops your scroll cold — and for good reason.

Who Is Cody Gould?

Cody Gould is a TikTok creator whose content revolves around interior design, personal style, and the art of crafting a deeply personal living space on a budget that doesn't involve buying a home. His Austin apartment has become something of a digital landmark, drawing hundreds of thousands of viewers who are equal parts inspired and bewildered by the choices he's made. The space feels like a gallery, a workshop, and a home all at once — and the green kitchen is the centerpiece that makes the whole thing unforgettable.

The Star of the Show: A Green Kitchen Painted with Car Paint

Let's talk about the kitchen, because it deserves its own moment. Cody painted his rental kitchen cabinets using automotive spray paint — the kind typically reserved for refinishing car bodies, motorcycles, and metal surfaces. Car paint is formulated to adhere strongly to non-porous surfaces, dry to an incredibly durable finish, and resist moisture, heat, and everyday wear in ways that standard wall or chalk paint simply cannot match.

The result is a deep, lustrous green that looks almost factory-finished. The sheen catches light differently depending on the time of day, giving the kitchen a dynamic, almost living quality. It's the kind of finish that reads as expensive and intentional — which, of course, it is, even if the method is wildly unconventional.

For renters who are tired of the standard off-white cabinet situation that comes with virtually every apartment in America, this is genuinely exciting information. Car paint can be applied to laminate, MDF, and even older painted surfaces with the right preparation — typically a scuff sanding and a primer coat formulated for slick surfaces. The key is patience, proper ventilation, and the willingness to commit to the process.

Why Car Paint Works Better Than You'd Think

Automotive paint has a few key advantages that make it surprisingly well-suited to kitchen cabinets and furniture:

• Exceptional durability: Car paint is engineered to survive road debris, UV exposure, and temperature extremes. Kitchen grease and humidity are comparatively mild challenges.
• High-gloss finish options: The glossy topcoats used in automotive painting are far more scrubbable and stain-resistant than most furniture paints available at hardware stores.
• Color depth: Automotive pigments are formulated for visual impact. The greens, blues, and reds available in the car paint world have a richness that standard interior paint colors rarely match.
• Adhesion: With the right primer, car paint bonds tenaciously to surfaces that would otherwise be difficult to paint, including factory-finished cabinet doors.

The trade-off is that application requires more preparation and protective gear, and the fumes during application are significant. But for a committed DIYer like Cody, the results speak entirely for themselves.

The Rest of the Apartment: Concrete, Reclaimed Details, and Original Art

The green kitchen doesn't exist in isolation — it's part of a larger design vision that Cody has applied to every corner of his 740-square-foot space. The apartment features exposed concrete walls, which give the space an industrial backbone that prevents the more decorative elements from reading as fussy or overly precious.

Reclaimed architectural details — think salvaged hardware, vintage finds, and repurposed objects given new roles — appear throughout the apartment, grounding the space in history and texture. These kinds of details are what separate a thoughtfully designed apartment from one that simply has nice furniture. They suggest that the person living there pays attention, that they find value in objects with a past, and that they understand design as something that accrues meaning over time rather than being purchased all at once.

Original artwork is another cornerstone of Cody's approach. Rather than relying on mass-produced prints or gallery wall templates, he has curated a collection of pieces that feel personal and specific. Art in a home functions as a kind of autobiography — it tells visitors something true about who you are and what you care about. In Cody's apartment, the art reinforces the sense that every decision has been made deliberately.

Renter-Friendly Design Lessons from Cody's Apartment

Even if you're not ready to spray-paint your kitchen cabinets with automotive lacquer, Cody's apartment offers a handful of genuinely transferable lessons for renters who want to create a space that feels like their own:

• Commit to a material palette: Concrete, reclaimed wood, and raw metal work together because they share an honest, unfinished quality. Picking two or three complementary materials and using them consistently throughout your space creates cohesion without requiring expensive renovation.
• Don't avoid bold color out of fear: The green kitchen works partly because it's confident. Timid color choices in small spaces often backfire — they read as indecisive rather than careful. If you're going to paint something, paint it in a color that means something to you.
• Invest in original art over decorative objects: A single original piece — even from a local artist at a modest price point — does more for a space than a shelf full of mass-produced decor. It makes the room feel inhabited by a real person with real taste.
• Use unconventional materials thoughtfully: Car paint, concrete sealer, leather dye, industrial hardware — these materials exist outside the typical home decor aisle, and that's exactly why they can make a space feel distinctive. Research the application process, prepare properly, and the results can be extraordinary.
• Work with your apartment's existing character: Cody didn't fight his concrete walls — he built around them. Finding and amplifying what's already interesting about your space is almost always more effective than trying to cover it up.

The Bigger Picture: Redefining What a Rental Can Be

Cody Gould's Austin apartment represents something genuinely important in the current conversation about renting versus owning. For millions of people, renting is not a temporary condition on the way to homeownership — it's a long-term or even permanent lifestyle. The assumption that renters should simply wait until they own a home before investing in their living environment is both outdated and, frankly, bad for your mental health and daily quality of life.

A space that reflects your personality, your values, and your aesthetic sensibilities is worth creating wherever you live, and for however long you live there. The green kitchen painted with car paint isn't just a design trick — it's a declaration that this apartment belongs to the person who lives in it, even if their name isn't on the deed. That's an idea worth taking seriously, and worth spreading — one viral TikTok at a time.