Anyone want a drink?

This past November we celebrated our one year anniversary in our new house. We had tackled so much already inside and out but there was one area that was really bothering me, the bar! I love having friends over and entertaining, yet this bar we had was hideous. When we first moved in I knew we couldn't do much with it so in order for it to disappear, I painted the cabinets a similar color to the walls. Then I aged the cabinets with a dark wax. Unfortunately this really didn't make the bar disappear or look any better. Maybe even worse! But I was too tired to rework it so it stayed that way for about 6 months!

In October, my husband and I started the process of redesigning the bar. We talked with a carpenter we knew and went over some ideas. To put in new custom cabinets (top and bottom) it was going to run about $1500 to $2000. I know! Wow!!! For only a wet bar! This was out of our budget. So we sat on the idea for a while. Then one night we went downtown to the Red Rabbit Bar. We were sitting at the bar and I was admiring the décor in the place. They had hanging rakes on the walls for wine glasses (which I love) and behind the bar they had liquor bottles inside wine crates hanging on the walls. It looked amazing! I said to my husband, "let's do that!"

So we ran with this idea. Luckily for us my husbands sister worked at a winery in Napa at the time and got us 8 wine crates for free:) I stained 4 a walnut color and left 4 natural. We had our carpenter create new doors and drawers for the bottom unit to match our shaker style cabinets in the kitchen and a butcher block top. In the meantime, we took down the top cabinet. We had the contractor who did our kitchen come in and put in a recessed light (I can handle changing out a light fixture, but haven't attempted any electrical beyond that). The wall had some major holes in it so we had him repair the holes and retexture the wall. DIY TIP- Drywall is not difficult to put up. We had done it. What is difficult is texturing the wall!!! I have used the spray can texture numerous times in my kitchen but for small areas. If you have a large area that needs repair, it is worth the money hiring a professional otherwise every time you look at the wall, you will see the flaws!!!

Once the light was in and wall was repaired, we laid out a geometric shape on the ground for the wine crates. Then we attached some boxes together. We knew not all the boxes were going to hit studs in the walls, so if we attach 3 boxes together, than at least the 2 studs we hit will help support that 3rd box. DIY TIP- Hit studs!!! If you can't hit a stud, make sure you use a anchors in the drywall.
After all the boxes were hung, the cabinet doors, drawers and top was installed. I made sure I painted the old base cabinet with the same spray paint color as our carpenter was using on the doors and drawers. We had a nice shelf installed inside the cabinet for storage. My husband and I laid the tile backsplash. It was actually very easy. I watched a few tutorials on u tube before we installed. We borrowed a wet saw from a friend. It turned out great. This was not our first stab at tiling either. We retiled our fireplace in our old house. The next day we grouted, which takes forever! I installed the hardware on the drawers and doors. Just make sure you use a template when doing this!!! You can make a template or buy them at Lowe's. We hung up our rakes for wine glasses and filled our wine crates with booze! All in all I think we ended up spending about $1600 for everything. It is still a lot of money, but that is lighting, drywall, new cabinet doors/drawers, countertop, backsplash, sink, faucet, hardware and cost for labor. Remember, it could have been more! $2000 was our quote for just new cabinets, nothing else! Now when I look at my bar, I smile!! I love it because it not only looks great, but it something my husband and I did together!

Check it out!!

 Before!! Old, tired and needing to disappear! Yes, if you look closely enough you will see the missing floor to the left of the bar!

First attempt at fixing it, but you can see it didn't work!!! Still hate it!

 Cabinet down and I cut a hole in the ceiling to find the electrical wires and figure out which way the beams were running. Then I called a contractor;)

Not only did that hole need to be repaired but the ceiling had to be retextured too. That's why we hired a professional!

 We figured out a shape we liked for the wall.

I stained 4 of the boxes.

 After!!! Love how we kept the doors on 2 of the wine crates. We can store glasses in them and they won't get dusty. The shaker cabinets looks amazing and up to date. You can't even tell that was the original bottom cabinet.

I wanted the side detail of the cabinet to match my kitchen cabinets and they do. Love the wine rakes too!!! Anyone want a drink:)