When it comes to living in NYC, you have to get a little thrifty. The average rental price in Manhattan is over $50 a square foot! Rather than curl up in a ball on your love seat and cry, you might want to get smart about what you do with your extremely valuable space.
The key is making each and every expensive square foot as useful as possible. Consider your small front closet, which your realtor may or may not have referred to as “a wonderful walk-in storage space.” Instead of storing your off-season clothes in there, why not turn it into a bar?
Send whatever you’ve been keeping in that closet out to MakeSpace, and give the area a good scrubbing. Depending on how much room you have to work with, you have some options: you can install shelves, a fold-out table or cutting board, or even a real bar that you can get behind to serve your guests.
Stores like IKEA offer inexpensive options for kitchen carts that can become your own personal booze cruise. Simply stock, store, and wheel the bar out whenever company calls.
If you’re feeling a little more ambitious, consider repurposing a corner of a bar slab from an old pub that’s going out of business, or buy your own. With a more eye-pleasing set-up, you can remove the closet door entirely and put your little watering hole on display.
To really wow friends with your skills of finding extra space in NYC, clear out enough room for a mini-fridge where you can keep beer, chill white wine, and store whatever other bartending essentials you need. This way, your favorite little bar around the corner is now in your corner.
