How extensive of a kitchenette are we talking here? Microwave? Toaster oven? Cooktop? What kind of fridge, how big, what will you keep in it? Do you want a dedicated ice maker? Do you use real glasses and other serve ware? Is everyone good about gathering up the dirties and bringing them to the main kitchen, or will you want a dishwasher drawer? Would anyone remember to run it? More often than once a week?

21” undermount sink, microwave, coffeemaker, 30x70 frig with ice maker. Yes, we use real glasses, flatware, and dishes. We plan to hand wash. No real cooking in that area other than popcorn or a quick snack. Emptynesters, that swell to a family of 8 adults and 8 grandkiddos ages 2 to 10 a few times a year. There are two full en-suites in the lower level where houseguests stay throughout the year. The kitchenette will get significant use during the summer months when the pool is open.

Check Houzz.

EastAutumn - THANK YOU! Your area is perfect! I love it! We decided to go with base cabinets and then use floating shelves. We will have a full size refrigerator (hubs wants an extra ice source). An Ice maker is 2x the price of a refrigerator. Crazy expensive. Planning to purchase cabinets tomorrow. Thanks again for sharing.

EastAutumn - This is the space for the kitchenette. The recessed area will require some construction, but allows us to recess a full size refrigerator.

Eastautumn, is that faux brick panels or real exposed brick? If it’s panels, how easy was it to install?

Never heard back about the faux brick, but decided to give it a shot in my basement.

ShadyWillowFarm- It looks great! I don't know why I didn't see the updates/questions from 2 years ago, but just got a notification for your recent post. In case anyone else is wondering, we used "thin brick" in our basement, which are basically tiles made out of real brick material. I'm pretty sure it was Old Mill brand in the "Castle Gate" style. We only used it on the exterior walls of the rec room/kitchenette area to give the look of a brick foundation. I strongly considered doing the faux brick panels on the exterior walls of our guest room and bonus room and painting them, but was nervous that it would look too fake and the seams would be obvious. Yours turned out really nice :)

motherof3sons- If you happen to see this thread at some point, I would love to see how your kitchenette turned out! That's great that you have a perfect recessed area for a fridge to sit flush with the cabinets/counter. I wish we had that in our regular kitchen (instead of a fridge that sticks way out).

This is off topic from the original kitchenette subject, but pertains to the side subject of faux finishes. I was just looking at the old pictures of our kitchenette and noticed the window well was still naked back then. The corrugated metal looked so harsh and we wanted to cover it but didn't want to spend thousands of dollars to have the window wells finished with real stone. We ended up covering all 4 window wells with Biggies window well scenes. If you look closely, you can tell they are not real stone, but they look great from a distance and (surprisingly) have actually fooled people in person. They've been installed for over 2 years and still look brand new (though our window wells are shaded most of the day so that probably helps). Anyway, just wanted to throw that out there for anyone who might be considering something similar. We hesitated for a long time thinking they would look too fake and were a bit pricey for what are essentially big vinyl posters, but they were well worth it.

Looks much better than metal!