Anyone have a home bar?

[ElementZ]

Bar is built and is looking good with pics to follow. I am now trying to decide on how to make the bar room look good. Going to add a poker table and a dart board. I have some ideas for some sports themes (mostly hockey, an autographed jersey, card collection display and perhaps some 8x10 pictures) but not sure what else.

Would like to make a shelf to hang on the wall to put some of my booze/glasses on although I have room under the bar for that but thought it would add more to the decor of the room having it displayed. I seen a cool two-tier shelf with lights built in. The lighting shines up through the various bottles which looked pretty sharp.

Anyone else have a bar in their home? Pics?

PS. My stepdad made the bar by himself as a suprise to me so I had no input in the design. I am pleased with it but would have rather had some say in what I wanted in it, but what's done is done.

Front of the bar


Space for the bar fridge underneath.


Shelves for my mugs and glasses


Some goodies. There is another shelf below it as well.


Liquor cabinet has a door with a lock on it.


Got lucky with these chairs, a lady at work gave them to me for free and they match up very nicely.

[spainlinx0]

No, I do not, but I definitely want to see the pics of what you have. I do have a lot of liquor around though.

[Numanoid]

I have a home tiki bar. Pretty elaborate, thanks to my ex who is an interior designer and crafty. I'll try to get some pics up. No sports memorabilia is allowed anywhere near it.

[dick_grayson]

No bar but I did just turn my fridge into a kegerator. I've got a 1/4 keg of Murphy's in there now. Not much room for food, but since there's protein in beer.....

[emanon]

Originally Posted by Numanoid

I have a home tiki bar. Pretty elaborate, thanks to my ex who is an interior designer and crafty.

If she were truly crafty, she would have taken it with her.

[hail2dking]

I converted a chest freezer into a kegerator and built a bar "around" it. I homebrew and have 5 beers plus a root beer (for the kids) on tap.





(the back bar is an entertainment center my father built years ago...much better craftsmanship )

[ElementZ]

Managed to snap a few pics before the battery in the camera died. Don't mind the dust in the pictures. Did some renos this past weekend.

Your set up looks very nice. Cool idea by building the bar around the freezer. Plan on making a kegerator some day. Do you find it inconvenient by not having a small sink located with your bar? We are planning on putting a 2nd bathroom downstairs and was curious on how much trouble it would be to add a sink on the right hand side of the wall.

[Josh-da-man]

No "bar" to speak of, just a minibar with all of our booze.

When we get our new house, I'm going to have a full bar, and do it up like a club with band flyers all over the walls, music memorabilia, and stuff like that. I've got quite a few cool stuff like drum sticks I caught during concerts, all of my old tickets, some cool posters, and other "band" stuff. Put up a few beer and liquor signs (Guinness!).

[mndtrp]

I don't drink enough to have a home bar, although it always seemed cool. I'm considering a kegerator, as beer would be cheaper. If I did have a home bar, I'd put up music stuff as well, especially the autographed things.

[chino77]

i have a bar from the 70's in my basement. luckily it isnt very dated looking so it still looks cool. it completly wraps around a corner and has a flip up door like a real bar. i have it set up with all my glassware and other bar stuff. i dont use it though since i go to other peoples house to drink and i only keep beer in the house. honestly i would probably take it out to make more room but it is bolted into the floor and they tiled the floor around it but not under it.

[hail2dking]

Originally Posted by ElementZ

... Do you find it inconvenient by not having a small sink located with your bar? We are planning on putting a 2nd bathroom downstairs and was curious on how much trouble it would be to add a sink on the right hand side of the wall.

It's not too bad, the kitchen sink is only a few feet away. It would have been nice, but I had limited space (was the "formal" dining room) to work with. I still need to find some stools tall enough, the ones shown are actually for the pub table.

[Sdallnct]

Oh yes, I have a bar, yes I do....I LOVE my bar. I'm sitting in it now....I will no doubt post some pic's. As a matter of fact, and not to brag....but I made the local paper a few weeks ago as they were doing a story on "Man Caves". When I did the interview I thought they were mainly wanting to know about my theater, but I also talked about my bar. They sent a photographer out while I was out of town and took pics of both bar and theater. They ended up using a bar pic for the article!

To the OP's question, I went sort of like a small local bar. My wife calls it an Irish bar, but that's not really accurate. I just put LOTs of stuff up. Like you I built everything myself. I have added shelving to hold my collection of pint glasses. I put them in windows. I have one small window left and might add shelving to that over the holiday. I don't have a keg but I have a frig and sink and popcorn popper. I travel to much to justify a keg. And I don't drink "clear" beer so I'm not sure how much real use I'd get out of a keg. Let me see what pics I have available to post....

[DeputyDave]

OP, beautiful looking bar. It really looks fantastic. Its almost a shame to keep cheap booze in it.

[Sdallnct]

OK, when I originally started my bar, I started a thread over at AVS. Here is a link to a post where that has pic's of the bulk of my build for the bar itself.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...9&postcount=46

Here is a link to the beginning of the thread. Let me tell you, there are some GREAT bars and great ideas there. And a many, many a lot nicer than mine. I had never built anything like this before, but not scared of much...so just jumped in.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=574277

Here are the shelves I built for more pint glasses. I have to window set like this. The windows are with in reach when I'm behind the bar. The third window I want to add shelving to is farther away, but I like the look as much as I like the usefulness of it.



This is a little bit of an overview. I took this earlier this year when I added the pendant lighting.



Here is some "stuff" I have on the walls. Like I say, I just have a bunch of stuff up. Sort of eclectic I guess...lol



This is a little outdoor bistro set I picked up. This is an old pic as I was still working on the electrical (just putting in some new switches)...lol



This is the article/photo from the paper. The on line version does not include a pic. So I scanned the paper in Word and XXX out my last name and than saved to PDF. They got a few details wrong (my bar is aprox 15 feet) but other wise pretty accurate.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/2450/bareditname.pdf

I have more, but that give you an idea....I love this project. And it is one of those "never ending" things.

[Sdallnct]

Oh, to OP...I'm impressed that you built that from scratch. Outstanding!! I originally thought about building from scratch, but again, I'm not a building. I know what I want to do, but often I don't know how to do it. So "cheated" and used bathroom vanity cabinets for the bulk of my build. I used vanity cabinets rather than kitchen cabinets as kitchen cabinets are 24" deep and vanity are 18" deep. And while I had a decent sized room to put this in, I really thought at 24" the kitchen cabs would take up to much room. And I do like the way it worked out.

Thinks I would have done differently? No much. I did run electricity in the bar, but I only put in one plug. I should have put in two. Obviously that would have been easier. I wish I had done a better job with the trim. I sort of learned as I went for miter cuts and such.

[mikehunt]

I want one but don't think I can find a place for one in my house

[dan30oly]

I'm seeing some awesome bars, but noticing a severe lack of pool tables and arcade games...

[Cardiff Giant]

I've got one that is pretty damn nice, was built by one of the prior owners, I'll try to post a pic later. No pool table yet just foosball,darts,ps3 and a computer hooked up to a 37" LCD and my surround setup. It one big room that's about 800sq feet so it's a great party room. Definitely want to get a kegerator at some point!

[Nosebleed]

a home bar would encourage me to be drunk all of the time.

[Sdallnct]

Actually I don't drink all that much. Especially when by myself. I often have coffee and read the paper in there. Or watch a game and surf the net. Sure when I have people over I get out the beer. But we use the popcorn maker for movie night and such. And for overflow when we have lots of people over for dinner. It has become a very hand room!

[dogmatica]

Some neat stuff here.

To the OP, I wonder if you shouldn't stain the wood, particularly the shelves down below in anticipation of spillage. Maybe even some contact paper?

Also, you should check out your local online auction websites for closed-down bars and restaurants for bar fixtures, artwork, and neon signs. I see these auctions all the time when I'm looking for other stuff.

[Blu Man]

Originally Posted by hail2dking

I converted a chest freezer into a kegerator and built a bar "around" it. I homebrew and have 5 beers plus a root beer (for the kids) on tap.



(the back bar is an entertainment center my father built years ago...much better craftsmanship )

So is this the place where your going to watch the Beavers Rose Bowl dreams end?