A former 45-year old hotel turns into an elegant new hostel through a modern renovation.

I have my sights set on Japan this year and can?t wait to experience all it has to offer. In order to keep costs down, I?ll be staying in hostels some of the time. Before, this may have brought on the anxiety attacks and apprehension about cramped spaces and questionable neighboring roommates but modern hostels like the Drop Inn & Cafe in Tottori, Japan leave me comforted knowing such beautiful, minimalist spaces like these exist.

Designed by studio designQ, this part hostel, part café was a former 45-year-old hotel in front of the Tottori Station. The ask was to renovate the hotel using as much of the existing building as possible to lower renovation costs without sacrificing the hospitality experience. The original brick façade, bracket lights, eight pendant lights, and scrapped cedar boards from the existing building were kept for the interiors of the new space.

designQ breathed new life into existing furniture, like the 21 guest chairs in the café, by freshening them up and repairing the upholstery.
At the front desk, a beautiful, aged pine girder that was obtained from a house demolishment was reused as the tabletop for the reception desk. All of the natural tones and textures of the hostel make it feel more like a traditional Japanese inn (called a ryokan) and less like a hotel.

Don?t be scared off by the size of your room. The Drop Inn, like many hos...