Mini Kitchen in a Closet – One Room Challenge Week #7

Hello everyone! This is week 7 of the One Room Challenge. If you are finding me through the One Room Challenge, welcome to my blog where I share my passion for creating comforting homes by thrifting, sewing and a little diy-ing along the way! While I’m not averse to buying new. I love being able to stretch a budget AND get that “layered over time” look that comes from incorporating pieces that have had a previous life! You can follow my decorating journey on the HomeSpunStyle Instagram.

If you missed my posts from Weeks 1 – 6 where we began transforming an old pool house on our property into an Airbnb guest cottage, you can find them here:

• Week 1
• Week 2
• Week 3
• Week 4
• Week 5
• Week 6

Today I’m sharing how we squeezed in a mini kitchen in our guest cottage. Did you know that the 3 most important things people want in an Airbnb are air conditioning, a parking space and a kitchen? Well we got the air conditioning and the parking space covered, but our little guest cottage simply did not have room for a kitchen. We did however carve out some space in the one and only closet for a refrigerator, microwave and Keurig, along with some basic supplies for warming and serving food. Here’s what we did.

The closet originally had bi-fold doors that were in disrepair. The old doors did not allow for full access to either side of the closet. Here’s the before:

We replaced them with two sliding louvered doors which allows for full access to one side of the closet at time. We kept the left side for clothes storage and turned the right side into a mini kitchen setup.

Inside the closet we used the vertical space to stack a mini fridge, microwave and an area above and below for storage of kitchen items. I repurposed a side table to elevate the fridge to a convenient height.

We purchased a 3.2 cubic foot refrigerator with freezer from Walmart to provide an ample amount of storage. The microwave, also from Walmart, sets securely on top of the fridge. Rubber feet, along with the shelf above, keep it from sliding around.

Below the refrigerator there’s a Keurig type coffee maker, along with a cutting board and paper cups and other supplies corralled in a thrifted basket.

While I plan to provide our guests with coffee and muffins from our local bakery each morning, I thought it would be nice to give them the means to make a cup of coffee in the evening or very early morning. And while they obviously won’t be able to cook a meal here, at least they can store or heat up their take out leftovers and enjoy some microwave popcorn!

The new rug is actually a Ruggable that can be thrown right into the washing machine! We wanted a rug that could be easily cleaned between guests as it will likely see some coffee and food spills, as well as dirt from foot traffic.

I’m still awaiting a few more furnishings for the cottage before calling this project done. One of these is a small bistro table and chairs that will fold up and be stored in the closet when not in use. Everything is taking a whole lot longer to arrive nowadays.

I’ll be back next Thursday with the full reveal of the guest cottage makeover! Be sure to check out all of the other Guest Participants in the One Room Challenge to follow along with their progress!

Thanks for stopping by!

Debra