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Designing, Upgrading &/or Installing a Home Bar


Chris Amirault

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We were visiting a house the other day that had a classic 1960s "rec room" setup in the basement: red shag carpeting, table shuffleboard, and... a bar. It's an ugly stained maple thing, but, damn, it's the real deal: extensive shelving, storage behind and underneath, even a little sink. (Sadly no Kold-Draft machine as far as I could tell.)

I've been pondering organizational streategies for my messy liquor cabinet, but this got me going on the whole nine yards. What do you home-bar owners have currently? Let's see some photos and plans.

Chris Amirault

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We renovated our basement last year and put in a new bar. It's only this big because we needed to incorporate the structural post holding up the ceiling.

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It has a bar fridge

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A dishwasher and sink

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Lots of shelves and cupboards

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And the requiste bar sign :biggrin:

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For upstairs when it's just the two of us and we don't want to traipse downstairs for every drink, we have a pull out cupboard in the kitchen with the essentials in it

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Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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Marlene, that is an outstanding basement bar. Well composed, well lit, and just the right amount of cabinet doors. Breath-taking, really.

You have put the Oak in Oakville.

(Unless I'm confusing you with someone else from Oakville, but you know what I mean)

Peter Gamble aka "Peter the eater"

I just made a cornish game hen with chestnut stuffing. . .

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Moe Sizlack

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Marlene, that is an outstanding basement bar. Well composed, well lit, and just the right amount of cabinet doors. Breath-taking, really.

You have put the Oak in Oakville.

(Unless I'm confusing you with someone else from Oakville, but you know what I mean)

No, I'm from Oakville. :biggrin:

Holy cow! That's quite a home bar, rivaling a lot of restaurant bars I've seen.

What's the backlighting or under-counter lighting you're using?

Thanks! It kind of grew, because of that post. It was supposed to be a lot smaller. Those are LED lights. They don't get as hot as flouresents or halogen. I have them in my kitchen as well, and at the cottage. They are a little more expensive, but they last forever.

The first kitchen I did had flouresents. They were kind of flaky and flickered a bit. The second one had Halogen. I couldn't leave a bread bag underneath without it heating up, or butter without it melting. These have been great.

Edited by Marlene (log)

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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  • 1 month later...

I've been planning a bar, but nothing nearly as extravagant as that. I've already built a mobile outdoor bar (it's red and black because it was originally for a new year's party) but it's nothing fancy.

When I get around to clearing a corner of the house, I plan to put in a small bar (4-5ft long) with just the basics, since my house is small. But I do plan to have it made of dark wood to accent the rest of the room.

"...which usually means underflavored, undersalted modern French cooking hidden under edible flowers and Mexican fruits."

- Jeffrey Steingarten, in reference to "California Cuisine".

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