So you want to build a bar in your basement…
My husband and I recently built our very own in-home bar. It took a while, but it has been finished about three weeks now, just in time for the NFL playoffs, and we are finally able to enjoy libations in the comfort of our own home. The project actually started last September when I had the bright idea to buy my honey a bar for his birthday. You wouldn’t think something as small as bar would take four months, but heed my advice Drinking Made Easy friends. If you have been thinking about putting a bar in your house, (and if you watch the show, I know you are) here are some things to be aware of before diving in.
1) Plan your space ahead of time
If this sounds like Construction 101, that’s because it is. Measure your space and come up with a plan. Don’t let the contractor (or in my case, the
cabinet guy) do it for you. He’ll put in something you don’t want or need. My cabinet guy kept trying to put nine feet of cabinets into eight feet of space. Draw up plans, write things down and be specific. You’ll save time and money.
2) Decide what you will use the bar for
My husband and I love beer. We’re too lazy to make cocktails and although we do enjoy a good bottle of wine, beer is our first love. Therefore a two-tap kegerator was a must for our home bar. If you enjoy wine, obviously, you would need a wine chiller. If you prefer crafting concoctions with liquor, then perhaps a fridge with ice maker might be necessary. Sure it would be nice to have everything, but if you don’t have the space (we didn’t) and if you know what kind of drinking you’ll be doing (we did), that can help you get the most out of the space you do have. We narrowed our appliances down to a kegerator and cooler. The cooler is for bottled and canned beer of course.
3) Do the research
Whether you go online or ask around to friends and coworkers, research on your project is a must. No matter how small the bar, it is still a construction project and you need to know what you’re getting into, whether you’re hiring a contractor or doing the work yourself. For example, here is a little tip I learned when I asked around:
Not all bar appliances are designed to be “built in.” Buying appliances at Sears or Home Depot is cheap and easy, but if I hadn’t asked around we might have bought something that would be disastrous later on. Most of the bar appliances you get from places like Sears, Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc. are NOT designed to be built into a cabinet. They are designed to stand alone with vents in the back. A friend of mine told me about her neighbor down the street that purchased a wine chiller from Sears and had it built into her kitchen. Then three months later, the motor blew up because it wasn’t vented properly. That’s several hundred dollars down the drain. We bought our beverage cooler at Home Depot because they had one designed to be built-in. However, we had to find a specialty store online to purchase the kegerator because local stores didn’t have one designed to be built-in.
Now you would think you could get the above information from a contractor, but you’d be surprised. Again this is where research pays off. In the scenario above, the neighbor’s contractor didn’t mentioned any issues with the wine chiller or make any effort to properly vent it. Find a contractor you TRUST. We were fortunate that a good contractor lives down the street from us and we know him pretty well. While at his house for a BBQ we were able to see the kitchen he designed and built himself. Impressed with his work, we asked him to build us a bar. And the best part was if anything went wrong, we knew where he lived…
And last, but not certainly not least,
4) Patience, patience and more patience
Remember the old saying, when you have a construction project, it will take twice as long and cost twice as much as you think it will? To a degree, that adage is true. One thing I forgot during the planning and budgeting stage was the endcaps. Endcaps are panels that go on the ends of exposed cabinets to make them look finished. Our countertop also needed endcaps because both ends of our bar were exposed. This wasn’t a huge expense, but still one I didn’t plan for (Remember Step 1?). And wouldn’t you know our contractor caught the flu the week he was supposed to start work on our bar. And then he left town for Christmas. The nerve of him to want to visit family why we were still dry! Oh, well. No matter how large or small the project, patience is important.
So learn from my experience Drinking Made Easy fans. Building a bar in your basement can be a rewarding experience…once it’s finished. After all that work writing all those checks, I need a drink. Cheers!
“You’ll know craft beer has finally arrived when the host of a Food Network show knows what a growler is.” – quote from the 2011 Great American Beer Festival press luncheon
Carrie Dow
Lakewood, CO
Where is CD now?
