Home Bar with Tons of Storage and Built in Keg

Our home bar gets so much use and we love having beer fro the tap right in our living room.

I posted a little bit about this home bar area a while back, but wanted to share with you guys all the details, including how I built it.  I’m sorry I’m just now getting around to actually writing it.  We are actually loving this little space and it feels so nice to have it done.  But, to be honest, I still don’t know if I’m actually done – I need to finish the trim and want to add some storage for glasses.  We don’t have a lot of space in the kitchen and so I’d love to be able to move all the barware here.  But, since I have to think about this stuff FOREVER my goal is just to have the glasses over here by the time we start the kitchen renovation.

So, for over a year, we were living and looking at this random hole in the living room.  We did have some really ugly, white cheap cabinets in this space that we ripped out and then we were left with this hole…

Like I said before, I like to look at things for a LONG time before I start.  We knew we wanted to make it into a home bar, but I couldn’t figure out how it was going to work and honestly, if I rush I end up not liking it and it’s not worth it. I started by redoing the back wall with my easy and cheap solution, you can read all about how that happened HERE.

One of the things holding me up on this space was the floor.  Under that piece of plywood, there is a hole.  Not sure why or what it’s supposed to be, but I wanted to make it look a little nicer without taking it out.  It had a nice support underneath and since it was holding up the cabinet, so I knew it could hold a lot. Since this was going to be a home bar and would need to hold a keg and refrigerator,  I needed the support.  So, I decided to cover it up.  I have used this beautiful craft board they have at Lowes before.  It a great solution if you like this look but don’t have the tools, i.e. a table saw, like me to achieve this look by yourself.

It comes in a bunch of sizes, and I picked two sizes, that when added together would fit the depth of the space.  I cut the lengths to fit and then joined the two boards with hidden pocket holes on the bottom.

I also used a piece of pine scrap to add a “lip” so it would sit on the exciting board but still cover it up. Again, I used pocket holes and wood glue to make a nice, strong connection.

Next I did the top almost the exact same way.  I again added the lip, this time to hold the track for the sliding door I wanted to install.  For the top, I had to cut out a space for the tap to stick out.

I went ahead and cut out the tap opening with my jigsaw before I connected the two boards. Once I had the top and bottom ready to go, I just cut two squares for the shelves with the excess boards.  I bought some iron piping to go along with my TV shelves.  When I built the TV shelves, I used PVC pipes to save money, which was fine because they weren’t going to hold much weight at all.  But, with this it needed to be sturdy, so I went with the real iron pipes for this one.

I set it all up to make sure it was going to fit and work before staining.  Then I used spray paint and enamel to paint the pipes.

Looking better!  The next part was to install the sliding door. I have all the details on the 5 things I learned about sliding doors HERE.

One of the things that i learned was that the lip I added wasn’t going to be strong enough to support the door, so I had to add a piece of scrap behind the lip to insert the track screws into.

That has worked just fine!  The track is easily installed and the directions come with the track kit. You have to find one with a track that will fit your space.  This was a bit shorter than most of the bigger tracks you see holding full-size doors.

Now it’s time to stain.  I went into detail about all those beautiful stains colors on the wood wall post and decided to pick my favorite color to stain the boards.  That color ended up being a 50/50 mix of red oak and gray Minwax stain. So pretty!  I love that mix because the gray really makes the beautiful grain stand out.  After I stained it,  I used about 3 coats on polyurethane to really protect it from any spills or leaks.

After all was done, it was time to set it all up and style it.

If you are wondering about my wine rack, I made it for about $25 dollars, which you can read about HERE.

I added a clock that I designed and made after I saw a similar one at Restoration Hardware, and wrote about that HERE.  That was such a fun little challenge.

And the last little project in this home bar area was my simple and easy upcycle I did with some jugs I found in my courtyard – HERE!

I have included affiliate links below for your convenience.  

To see my full disclosure policy, click HERE. 

Home Bar Nook Materials 

Kegerator(this is the one we purchased)

pine craft boards (similar to what I used)

various pipes and connectors (size to fit your project)

spray paint

spray paint clear gloss for the protective coat

stain

pocket hole screws

sliding barn door kit (please go HERE to see my tips on picking out and installing the sliding doors)

Wow!  That’s a lot of projects in one tiny space!  I didn’t really realize how much was happening until I just typed it all out!  I’m still thinking of adding glass storage, but haven’t figured it out yet.  Have any ideas for our new little home bar?  Hmmm….

Thanks for stopping by!

April

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