Build your own bar?

So here's the finished product for now ... We were scrambling to get everything done in time for our wedding on Friday, so I opted to use an old closet door for the bar top ... not sure if it's staying for good, but I kind of like it and I didn't have to spend most of the day Thursday making the flooring work as a bar top.

As I said ... it's finished for now ... we still have more work to do, including running water/drain so we can truly make it a wet bar, but I have to say ... it's probably one of the coolest things I've ever done and I just love having the bar and being able to walk behind it and "bartend" ... I'm incredibly happy and proud of it.



Love the lights behind the glass blocks.



Rather than build shelves behind the bar, due to time, we used some old crates that the Mrs. found on a local online rummage site. So we tacked them down to the framing and I really like it right now.




Chalkboard paint on the fridge ...

Glad you zoomed in on the chalkboard fridge, from the first pic I thought it said valentines day!

Close enough

Looks good!

Thanks!

Ice maker...ya have ta get an ice maker.

DoctorShavegood said:

Ice maker...ya have ta get an ice maker.

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The old fridge in the bar doesn't have one unfortunately ... but it would be awfully handy ...

Minor update to the bar ... my wife found this hand painted pallet sign online, and bought it.

It's fantastic ... and we're going to stick bottle caps from our Wisconsin breweries on it in the correct geographic locations. Sorry, don't know how to rotate the pic.

Wanted to post a pic of how it looks at the end of the year. Not a lot of changes ... got the light up "Bar" sign from my wife for Christmas, as well as some more University of Wisconsin coasters. Had to swap out the incandescent lights behind the glass blocks for some new red and white LEDs. Also have a big Bucky Badger fathead on order. Should arrive next week and that'll go on the wall opposite the bar.

Plans for 2016. First and foremost, a keezer, that will be clad in old barn boards. I'd also like to re-cover the bar stools in something a little more appropriate. We're also still adding to the bottle caps on the Wisconsin sign. I also want to get it plumbed for a sink behind the bar. Also contemplating some sort of lighting above the back bar ... it's pretty dark in there.

Oh ... and we also have a line on a free slate pool table. We just have to move it from southern Wisconsin and then have the bumpers redone and have it re-felted.

Prof. Moriarty said:

Make sure to take pictures before, during, and after
Good luck!

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+1

jjking54 said:

Well ... it's taken me awhile but I finally started building the bar. Did much of this yesterday.

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Still working on the top ... and the foot rail that I mocked up wasn't approved by the future Mrs., but overall I'm pretty pleased so far. Looking at doing a foot rail out of pipe of some kind. We wanted a very rustic look and the old door she found really set the tone. The glass blocks were salvaged from behind an old barn.

We've redone the basement in a University of Wisconsin color scheme, so parts of the bar will have red and black accents. We're also going to run a red rope light behind the glass blocks. I framed the back side of the bar so I could slide a minifridge in it, and today I'm painting our old basement fridge in chalkboard paint. The idea being once we get the bulk of this done, then I'll start kegging my homebrew and use the chalkboard paint to note what beers are on tap.

I've not really built a whole lot of things in my lifetime, but after a few fits and starts last weekend, it's coming together nicely. I'm pretty proud of this so far.

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I am so envious of people who can do this. I can barely saw a straight line. Looking good so far. Keep us posted!

Thank you! Not sure it's straight, but it's still standing. Actually sitting behind it right now. Can't wait to build my keezer

About a week ago now, disaster ...

We were away to Minnesota to visit family, and we came home to find the bar fridge had died.

Were it just the beer and assorted other stuff in the fridge, it wouldn't be so bad. But late this fall we went in on half a cow with my sister in law, and had it all stashed in the freezer on top. We had to throw all of it away ...

Edit to add ... we checked our homeowners insurance ... and the loss of the meat isn't covered.

Working on the keezer this coming weekend. Still noodling the fridge replacement. We might just replace the fridge in the kitchen with a new one and move the old one to behind the bar.

That sucks about losing the meat.
Your bar looks great. One thing I would add to a bar if possible is a glass washer, especially if your serving tap beer. Adds to the cost but makes life easier if you use the bar a lot.

Looking good! Congrats and enjoy!!

dougydee said:

That sucks about losing the meat.
Your bar looks great. One thing I would add to a bar if possible is a glass washer, especially if your serving tap beer. Adds to the cost but makes life easier if you use the bar a lot.

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Actually I'm hoping to get it plumbed in the next few months. Above the "closet" where the fridge and shelves with my liquor on them (I guess that'd be my back bar) are located, is a bathroom so there's plumbing right there.

This weekend is the keezer. I also saw a really cool idea for turning an old fridge into a huge "cooler." You basically frame it out (the design I saw used pallet wood) and put it on wheels. For big events you can use both the fridge and freezer said, for smaller things, just one or the other. Planning on putting it on wheels and putting it on our patio for use in the summer months The patio, incidentally, is located right outside the bar area.

eezee said:

I am so envious of people who can do this. I can barely saw a straight line. Looking good so far. Keep us posted!

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Me, too ... I'm a total klutz when it comes to building things from scratch, and anything more complicated than changing a lightbulb is too much for me to handle.

I have lots of ideas for home improvement projects, but the actual work would have to be left to someone else to do.

I've learned the hard way not to let my friends work on my house. Better to hire a professional that does this sort of thing for a living, but of course, they charge out the wazoo for their expertise.

I like the way you retro-used the door.

Do you have one in the front, and one in the ceiling? Or is the same door that you moved half-way through the design?

dpm802 said:

I like the way you retro-used the door.

Do you have one in the front, and one in the ceiling? Or is the same door that you moved half-way through the design?

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Not sure I follow ... I just have the one in the front. My wife found that door on a Facebook rummage site and I picked it up. When I picked it up I saw the wood side (unpainted) and immediately saw it as the front of the bar. Of course she wanted the painted side out.

Unless you're talking about the bar top, which is an old closet door (actually a door from the closet behind the bar).

dpm802 said:

Me, too ... I'm a total klutz when it comes to building things from scratch, and anything more complicated than changing a lightbulb is too much for me to handle.

I have lots of ideas for home improvement projects, but the actual work would have to be left to someone else to do.

I've learned the hard way not to let my friends work on my house. Better to hire a professional that does this sort of thing for a living, but of course, they charge out the wazoo for their expertise.

Click to expand...

On the same page brother!

So ... the project has begun in earnest. Last Thursday I visited an eclectic odds and ends type place and bought about 100 feet of old barnboards. Friday night the wife and daughter left for the weekend so I went to Home Depot, bought 2X4s, screws and casters and began the plan.


The victim ... a freezer, the previous owner used as a very ugly keezer (you can see the hole for the draft tower on top). Found it online, and I really was only interested in the gas hardware that came with it, but the seller wanted to sell all or nothing. So after looking it over (and actually finding an incredible conical fermenter in the freezer that wasn't in the original pics) I happily accepted the whole deal. There was also a pass through thermostat included, in essence preventing the freezer from freezing and allowing me to set a specific temp for the beer.

Built a base with 2X4s and casters so I can wheel it around as needed to swap kegs, etc. The nice thing was the long sided 2X4s fit perfectly on the edge of the freezer, so it sits real sturdy.

Kind of "winged" the framing of it. I had a general idea in my head. The 2X4s give a few inches of breathing room for the freezer, so the sides aren't attached directly to it, allowing for proper cooling of the freezer. Don't want it to overheat. I had to run back to Home Depot for the 1X4s on the sides.

First barn boards going on. I'm told the barn was built in the 1800s. I doubt the wood is that old, but it's old, weathered, practically on the verge of rot.


Front is covered. I think I'm going to either redo or adjust the boards on the right hand side. Not sure I like the way it looks. Working with the barn boards is interesting, because none of the measure the same width (in fact some are not the same width from the top to the bottom!). This week I'm going to fix those two boards on the right end, then I'm going to put the boards on the side.

After that I've got to settle on a design for the top and the tower/coffin box. That top will function as the freezer lid and will cover the "raw" tops of the barn boards on the bottom.