Our house has a classic Wisconsin 50s wood paneled basement.
A small bar is in the corner and fits our needs. My wife and I have a healthy love of alcohol and the art of mixology. Since I was 21 (give or take a couple years) I have collected, tasted, and enjoyed the art of mixology. Years ago, when I was in a small studio apartment, a friend saw my alcohol collection and said he hadn't seen such a collection in a private residence since he years in his fraternity. I paused to think I might have a problem, but then accepted it as a complement. Its not like all the bottles were empty (I hid all of those under the couch). I wanted to build a built in, behind the bar, that would not only display many of our fine liquers and distills but to show off many of our unique drinking vessels and tools (all comes with the admiring of mixology).Like most projects, it spun out of control. I went behind the bar 
and measured the area behind the bar to put in some shelves. Then I thought, what if we lit it, and what if we put some glass shelves, and what if we made room for my German beer boot, or my martinin glasses, and who can forget shaker, or some of Dawn's painted wine glasses
. Sure there was plenty of room under the bar, but what is the point of having cool drinking accessories if you can't show them off. So I set out, restricting myself to under 100 dollars (very early in the planning I up'd it up to 150).
and measured the area behind the bar to put in some shelves. Then I thought, what if we lit it, and what if we put some glass shelves, and what if we made room for my German beer boot, or my martinin glasses, and who can forget shaker, or some of Dawn's painted wine glasses
. Sure there was plenty of room under the bar, but what is the point of having cool drinking accessories if you can't show them off. So I set out, restricting myself to under 100 dollars (very early in the planning I up'd it up to 150).The Designing:
Couple years ago I found out about a program called SketchUp from one of my "do-it-yourself" websites. Its a simple 3D program that lets you generate 3D structures in a simplistic way. Over the years, I used it more and more and now use it for all of my projects to plan out and design my ideas. It gives me time to work out new ideas and think about my projects when I'm not ready to build or don't have money to build.
I've made several different versions of the bar built in, changing things here and there. My goals in the design were simple:
- Make 2 shelves to hold a majority of my bottles. Making sure Belvedere (favorite vodka, that is also the tallest) sat comfortably on the main shelf.
- Hold those 2 shelves up with 2 lit towers, with glass shelves to display accessories. Making sure that my German beer boot is properly displayed.
- Build it so my wife's and my wine fridge can fit under it (awsome wedding gift from a group of dawns friends).
- Build it out of no more then a single 4'x8' 3/4" mdf with oak veneer.
- Keep it under 150 dollars.
- Have it fit the decor. Not too modern, not too classic bar look (I love the look of intricate wood bars. The dark carved wood setting the backdrop a rich oak bar below a tin ceiling. That will not be possible in this cave of paneling).
It fits almost all my requirements. I wanted to better utilize the space below near the fridge, but to make it easier and fit 1 board, then this is what I had to do. I'm not huge into wine, but Dawn is, so I figured if she needs more then 48 spaces and a fridge then I can build her a seperate wine rack like what Boye did (co worker who built a really nice wine rack for his healthy addiction). I actually used his style of wine rack then an clumsier one I designed in an earlier version.
The Finishing:
I want to stain it as I go along because I think it will be easier to stain the larger pieces and the smaller intricate pieces a head of time instead of finishing all at the end. The basement is a maple/pine paneling. I want a bit of a cherry look and Dawn wants a darker look. So we will be doing a darker stain. I did several tests with different Minwax products and I was extermely suprised and how nice the Polystains looked. However, the color wasn't what I wanted. I decided to go with the Mahogany stain that is left over from my kitchen project. I however won't do as thick of a staining as I did with the kitchen project.
The Final Planning:
So we have the plans, I have the stain selected, and I took the week off to work on it (January 26th, my birthday, to the 30th). I think I can complete it in under a week. I will also be helping my dad tile my parents bathroom floor. We've never tiled before, so this should an exciting week.
