Happy New Year friends! I hope you guys had a wonderful holiday! I’m back from my long break and ready to jump into 2015 and share with you a fun project that we did over the holidays. To keep this post from being way too long, I’m breaking it up into Part 1 and Part 2. Â You can find the detailed measurements and how we built the piece here on Part 2 of this post.
For years, I have wanted a built-in bar somewhere in my dining room for when we entertain. Â I have never had a place to store all of our barware, liquor, wine and when we have get-togethers, my kitchen is usually where I set up a bar on the counter. Â It get’s really congested in my kitchen during parties and I have always felt that if I had a dedicated bar space in the dining room, I could spread the party out more and I could create a whole new storage area for the barware, which would free up a lot of kitchen cabinet space.
So, the day finally came and my contractor Jesús and I put our heads together to come up with the perfect solution using the narrowest of space in a corner in my dining room.  Jesús and I LOVE these challenges and some of you may remember that he and I worked together on my mud room wall and our craft room, which was also very limited space design work.
The built-in bar piece when we were finished measured only a little over 6″Â deep on the upper piece and only 14″ deep on the bottom cabinet/countertop. Â So as you can see, you don’t need much space at all if you too would love to create a narrow bar space in your own home. Â I took a side profile pic to show you just how little space this piece takes up:
So let me first show you the finished piece and then on Friday, I will go into all the details and measurements of how we built it for those of you looking to build something similar:
This piece is two separate pieces (upper and lower) that were built first outside and then they were attached to studs over a mirror that I had installed on the wall first:
The countertop was extra tile that I had that is a porcelain tile that looks just like marble that I used on my dining room floor (it’s by far the best marble alternative that I have ever seen!)
I was worried that the storing the liquor open in this piece wouldn’t look good, so we installed chrome rods to make it look like a higher end liquor rail like you would see in a higher end built-in bar:
I am using the top shelves for storing things that I rarely use:
The bottom cabinet has two shelves inside and it’s where I’m storing extra glassware, liquor and bar accessories. Â I would love to come up with a way to utilize the inside of each door to open and have bar accessories on the door. Â I’m kicking around something magnetic or maybe hooks. If you have any ideas or suggestions, I would love your thoughts!
The cabinet fronts I designed using three inch painters tape to layout and play with different pattern fretwork possibilities:
and we used 1/2″ inch MDF to cut out my pattern and we attached to 3/4″ MDF door fronts:
We also did the same thing on the front of our “hidden storage” buffet that we built for the dining room a few months ago:
By the way, this is what the corner space in my dining room looked like before we got started:
and here we are today:
Yes! Much better and so gratifying that we were able to do it with very little space but that piece stores a ton of stuff! Â I have already used the bar during the holidays and I wish I had done this years ago.
So if you have a little narrow spot like this in your dining room or kitchen and you too have always wanted a bar, I’ll be sharing all of the details and measurements on Friday.
Thanks for stopping by friends and Happy 2015!!
Cheers!
Cyndy
Sharing this post with The Best of the Nest linky Party here.
Lauren@SimplyLKJ says
Love this! Especially the mirrored back. Would love to have something like this in our dining area.
Cyndy says
Thank you so much Lauren! Can you believe that mirror was a last minute add on? I just kept looking at the shelves thinking that I had to have the mirror behind it. Happy New Year!!
Binda says
I love it – well done!!!!!
Cyndy says
Thank you Binda!
Robbie says
Well, this is brilliant! I would not have thought of so much storage in such a little space, and in what was a “dead space”! And it looks fantastic! Of course it does- you did it!
I love how people can flow around it – with the 2 openings.
Thanks, Cyndy!
Susan Tucker says
What color did you use? Its gorgeous!
Cyndy says
The paint color is Mindful Gray by Sherwin Williams Susan. I use the color everywhere because it is the most perfect warm gray. Not too gray but just a hint of warmth. Thank you for stopping by and Happy New Year!
Susan Tucker says
Thank you Soo much!
It is beautiful!!
Susanne says
Thank you!!!! My next DIY project was a small bar for my basement that is completely redone and design for a movie room for the family This is perfect. Fabulous job.
Julie Spear says
Wow!! This is a dynamic, brilliant use of space!!! Very inspiring, in fact I think you have inspired ME all the way to giving this a try on my very small wall of my eat-in kitchen, only I will use mine as more of a china hutch… I have a few questions, but maybe they will get answers on your “part 2” post. I am very interested in the source for the faux marble porcelain tile. It DOES look remarkably like real marble. Can you share that with me? Thank you for shorting this project and giving me a new idea for a solution to a problem area in my own home. I love THAT!!!!!!!
Shawna says
I chuckled a little at the notion that we would ever have an actual PARTY, with ALCOHOL, and ADULTS, and so many people milling around that we’d need a dedicated bar space that was out of the way and didn’t get in the way of circulation, but I suppose our kids may just get older and our parties may at one point become a little less about pizza and juice boxes and yelling. What an exotic thought!
Regardless of whether I personally would use this at this stage of my life, I think it looks absolutely lovely, and chic, and so very grown-up! Well done!
Cyndy says
Had to giggle myself Shawna! It doesn’t happen very much at our house either but as my daughter gets older, I think about the idea of entertaining more and more. The funniest thing is that my girl said it would be great for HER parties filled with lemonades, fun drink goodies and snacks. She loved the idea of it as well and maybe, we’ll share it with her! LOL! I’m hoping that now that we are set up a little better, this will get us rolling on a more regular basis. Thank you for your sweet note Shawna!
Nancy says
Can you share any purchase info on the porcelain dining room tiles that resemble marble please?
Cyndy says
Hi Nancy! I am doing a post later this week on the floors with all of the info and some other good ones. Thanks so much!
http://storagesouthwimbledon.co.uk/ says
Really lovely bar! Great idea! Thanks for sharing!
Kris {Driven by Decor} says
Seriously?? This is amazing! Love that you were able to pack so much glamour and functionality into a space that was previously unused. You and Jesus are a pretty awesome team 🙂
Yami says
This looks awesome! Thanks for linking up! You have definitely given me some great ideas.
Tiffany says
Love this bar! Where did you get the chrome rods?
Cyndy says
I bought the chrome rods from Home Depot. They were used for door hardware but I cut to them to make rods. Hope that helps!
Jane says
Hi Cindy! I love this bar and your tutorial. Could you tell me how you installed the chrome rods in the cabinet? I’m looking to do something similar. Thank you!
Cyndy says
We just bought two chrome rods at Lowe’s (I’m not sure what they are used for) and drilled holes and slipped them in. I hope that helps. 🙂
Tara Hubbard says
Hi there! I am doing mindful gray for my mudroom built-ins. What color did you put on the wall? Looks great!