Whether you like having friends around or enjoy quiet evenings in, a bar is a great addition to the home.
From trolleys and upcycled cabinets, to garden bars and speakeasies, property and construction expert Gregory Smiths at PriceYourJob.co.uk shares home bar ideas to suit all budgets.
Wheel in a trolley
Embrace retro vibes and deck a trolley out with your favourite tipples and glasses. The beauty of a trolley is that it doesn’t require a lot of space and can be wheeled over to your dining table or seating area, bringing the bar to your guests.
You could go with a gold and glass trolley and deck it out with vintage coupes and cocktail shakers to create a sophisticated, art deco bar. Or bring disco glamour to your home with a glitter ball drinks trolley, kitted out with kitsch barware.
Repurpose a piece of furniture
Another affordable way to create a home bar is to repurpose an old display cabinet, Welsh dresser, wardrobe or cupboard and place it in your dining room or lounge. If you want to make a spectacle of it, you could paint the outside and decorate the inside with bold, patterned wallpaper.
Alternatively, you could leave the outside as it is, so it looks like an ordinary piece of furniture until you open it up. The surprise as you open it up for drinks would create a real talking point for guests.
Rechargeable lights with motion sensors will mean the bar automatically lights up when you open the doors, adding a bit of magic to your ‘secret’ home bar. Inside, you could add a pull-out shelf to give you a prep area for rustling up cocktails, and you could attach racks to the underside of the shelves to hold your glasses.
Commandeer a kitchen cabinet
Another easy way to create a bar at home is to commandeer one of your kitchen cabinets. A glazed cabinet would work well, but if you don’t have one and want to show off your barware, you could use a standard cabinet and remove the door.
The great thing about a kitchen cabinet bar is that you don’t need to add extra furniture to your home, so it’s a great solution for small spaces.
You could give the inside of the cabinet a glitzy makeover with metallic vinyl wrap and use self-adhesive LED tape or low-profile rechargeable strip cabinet lights to make it shine.
Make use of a kitchen corner
If you don’t have a cabinet available to use, but want a bar in the kitchen, you might be able to make use of an unused corner instead.
For instance, you might have some open shelves above a section of worktop that could serve as a bar area. You could arrange your drinks and glasses on the shelves and use the space below for prep – perhaps using a large wood or marble cutting board to help zone the space. If you wanted to create more of a chic bar aesthetic, you could accessorise it with a stylish bowl of lemons and limes and a tray of copper or chrome bartending utensils.
Create an island bar
A kitchen island makes a great space for a home bar. You might already have it set up with sociable stools, and it’s likely to have plenty of workspace for prepping cocktails and snacks. So, you may not need to make too many changes to get it up and running.
To create a multi-functional island with bar facilities, you could fit out one side with a chiller for drinks and display shelves for your bar accessories.
Use the space under the stairs
You don’t have to steal space from your kitchen to create a home bar. You could make use of one of your home’s dead spaces instead.
The niche under the stairs is ideal. There’s no need to spend lots of money converting it, as a few wall-mounted shelves will give you plenty of space for glasses and other pieces. However, you could also slide in a small cupboard or add a wooden bar area if you fancy creating more storage and prep space. To make it a comfortable and sociable place to hang out, position a couple of compact cocktail chairs next to it.
You may also wish to add mirrored tiles to the back wall to make the space feel bigger, or add some warm wall lights or lamps to give it a cosy feel. If you want a cost-effective way to close off the space, try a velvet curtain. When it’s drawn back, it will add to the cosiness of the bar.
Takeover an alcove
If you don’t have space under the stairs, perhaps you have an alcove by the fireplace that you can use instead. An alcove makes a great bar area as the recess naturally zones the area, and it’s easy to build in shelves and cupboards, so it’s practical, too.
If you fancy yourself as a bit of a wine connoisseur, you might fit it out with a chiller or wine rack instead of a cupboard or go for glass shelves instead of wood or MDF shelves to help to lighten and brighten the space.
Again, mirrored tiles and LED backlighting will help give it the look of a real bar, but you could also customise the alcove with vintage signs, neon lighting or fairy lights.
Sneak in a speakeasy
If you’re lucky enough to have a room available to convert into your home bar, how about creating your very own speakeasy?
One of the best and most fun ways to do this is to design it with a sneaky doorway. You could hide the door in a bookcase or camouflage the door by painting or wallpapering it to match the walls.
Inside your speakeasy, you could use lots of deep reds and browns and furnish it with chesterfield-style armchairs to give the space a sophisticated, private member’s club feel.
Take it outside with a garden bar
Your home bar doesn’t need to be created inside, you could have it outside in the garden. This makes sense if you do most of your entertaining over the summer months.
There are plenty of different ways you can reuse old pallets to create a garden bar, so you don’t need to spend vast amounts of money doing this. However, one of the easiest solutions is to cut an opening in the side of a small shed and add a timber ledge for the bar. You can stand it on the patio next to your seating or position some bar stools next to it. To weatherproof your bar area, you could add a pergola and outdoor heaters.
Final thoughts
As you can see, there are plenty of ways to create your own bar at home, enabling you to up your entertaining game and improve those quiet nights in. There’s no need to spend enormous amounts of time or money doing this, as you can simply use a trolley or upcycle a cupboard. However, if you want to turn your bar into a real feature, why not hire a handyman or carpenter to help you turn that unused room or alcove into the coolest hangout in town?
