Where is the fridge? I'd think you'd need at least a small one for water/soda/beer.

Can you sketch up an overall layout of the room & the surrounding rooms?

I think the spot next to the sink was used for a bar fridge?

I don't think you'd need an oven in it. Maybe you could get by with just a countertop convection oven for the occasional pizza. I love my Breville.

Post a floor plan, please. Of the kitchenette and the rest if the floor it is on.

Yes, in this photo the fridge would go under the counter there to the right underneath the house's circuit box.

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edit: I uploaded the wrong picture at first. This is the correct one

Okay, here's the layout. Where you see the "current wash" is a room with washer/dryer hookups and a vanity. Through a door there is a shower and a toliet. I plan on combining this whole area into one room that is combo laundry and bath. That being said, I could also put the laundry in the basement, do a smaller bath, and push out the kitchenette to make it bigger.

There is a door to the exterior off of the kitchenette. There's also a door off of the room it connects to. The whole house has 7 exterior doors.(?).

This post was edited by demeterchaos on Tue, Jan 20, 15 at 12:50

I think I would leave the toilet/shower separate from the laundry/sink. When you have guests, it might be handy to have that extra privacy. I'm not real clear how you would make laundry/toilet-shower rooms one room anyway. Isn't the staircase in the way? Am I confused?

I think in a small space like that, a combination microwave/convection oven would make a lot of sense. I can see needing to do quick heat-ups of this with the micro but also wanting a real oven for those pizzas or nachos. There are models that would fit a smaller turkey. I've not looked into them closely so there may be some big enough for big turkeys, too.

Widen the doorway so it's as wide as the kitchen itself so it's open to the rest of the room. I wouldn't want to be in the kitchen making snacks and miss out on the game room action.

Personally, and maybe this is my lazy side showing, but if I had an entire house remodel ahead of me, I would leave the kitchenette as is, add the micro/convection over the stove, and slap on a coat of paint and other decorating touches and call it good. I think for a limited use kitchen, it's fine.

However, if you really want to put the time and money into it, I'm sure you will get a lot of creative answers. One thing that pops into my head is to make the kitchen more of a U. Take out the short hallway that leads to the bathroom so you can bring the kitchen out to that wall. The problem with this though is that I think it's nice to have a more private entrance to the bathroom. Even if people know you're going there, it's nice to not have them directly see you go in. If you put the toilet in a separate toilet room, that would alleviate some of that issue.

Excuse the poor, cock-eyed and not to scale rendering.

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The sink counter would be open on top. You would want that counter to be deeper, probably at least 30", so someone standing across doesn't get splashed. Of course, you can always make it even deeper and have counter seating.

I'd consider an over the range microwave with convection oven, a portable induction burner or two that could be put away entirely when not in use and trying to squeeze a bigger refrigerator in there--something with some real freezer space for ice and frozen pizzas and such. I'd also look at whether a single dishdrawer dishwasher would fit or an 18 inch dishwasher.

If you can get all of that in there, you would have a very functional kitchen to use during your whole house remodel and a really nice kitchenette for your game room at the end. Part of my thinking is that it sounds like remodeling the main part of the house may take several months or more. Also, it would be nice to have such a functional kitchenette if you end up using this space as guest quarters or rental space at some point.

But I may be blowing your budget for this project.

Here is a link that might be useful: Small LG refrigerator on AJ Madison website

Get a 12" wide 2-burner cooktop that arranges the burners front to back rather than side by side to add 11" of countertop width.

How will the space be used after you've moved into the main house? Since it has a separate entrance, do you plan to rent it out as a studio/efficiency apt? It would be helpful to knowing your long term goals for the mother-in-law suite.

My reasoning for wanting to comibine the toliet/shower space and the laundry/vanity space into one room is that currently the toliet room is very cramped and the tall shower walls in such a narrow space makes it feel very dark. I want a slightly bigger shower, as well, as that one is questionably even 36"x36". Combining the rooms gives me a larger space to work with so I can get a more comfortable shower.

Lisa A, we're still deciding that. We're young (I'm 23 and the SO is 27) so at first we very well might rent out a room or two. However, we might throw them up in the main house with us and still use this as a game room. Down the road, this very well might be rented out as a studio... we haven't quite decided, honestly.

At first, it is going to be where I live completely. Even though the main kitchen isn't pretty (torn up floors and walls, bad cabinets), I can still use the appliances up there so not having a dishwasher in this kitchenette isn't a big deal to me. I don't want to compromise storage space as this kitchen is probably where I will store things I don't use as much (rice cooker, fondue pot, the "nice" china, etc) once we move into the house proper.

I hadn't thought about moving the door to the bath... that's something I'll have to give more thought into.