can u update d cabinets on an apartment urself? like paint or refinish or put laminate wood or something???

First, wash them with a mix of warm water and TSP. This is a powdered cleaning solution you can buy at any hardware store. You'll need to clean them off before you do anything with them.

If they have paint on them and they're wood, you'll have to lightly sand, wipe with tackcloth and repaint. Oil paint is probably most durable, but it's a mess to work with and it stinks, literally. We did this at our old house, though, and it really brightened up the kitchen.

Ask the people at Home Depot for any recommendations on this. You could try latex paint, but it probably won't stand the test of time.

One thing to be aware of - you'll probably have to take the cabinet doors off in order to paint them. Keep the hardware in labeled plastic bags, numbering the doors so that you can remember how to put everything back together.

I like the 1st answer you got, but I would change the hardware as well to give it a look that you want, and not what was given to you with the apartment.