A personal home bar might just be your perfect gateway this fall. At some point in life, you must have fantasized about hanging out at your customized bar after a bad day just so you could stir some iced drinks. But, like millions of us millennials, you never had the time or money to pull off your dream bar.
What if we tell you that owning a private bar isn’t about spending thousands of dollars or keeping tens, if not hundreds, of varieties of spirits in stock? You just need to be smart about it and use your locally-available resources.
Home bar areas are often installed to serve multiple purposes. In addition to its literal purpose as a spot to get your drinks, a home bar also serves as a decorative piece to your home interior. For every homeowner, their personal bar is their fortress, no matter how big or small.
So, if you are planning to create a customized personal indoor bar for the winter, we’ve got you covered.
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Best Home Bar Ideas
Best home bar ideas are about making cost-friendly bars that suites your home interior. Trying to build a majestic bar without prior experience often ends in disappointment.
A personal bar should serve as a man cave where an individual can hang out without worrying about the harsh realities of life. A DIY mini bar adds much more value to a house than a full-sized bar made by professionals for thousands of dollars. Instead of using your limited financial resource to hire professionals, you can utilize the money to stock up your inventory or purchase bar accessories.
Today, we have prepared a list of 15 best home bar ideas that’ll save your hard-earned money and living space.
1. Basement Pub
The idea of turning your basement into a bar might not seem like a bright idea at first glance. But, if you follow home building expert Paul Gray’s DIY advice, this concept can turn out to be better than you expected.
The basement pub design is also very budget-friendly and easy to execute. You’ll need quartz countertops and a dark stone bar as decorative pieces. Likewise, there should be enough shelves to display the various brands of wines and alcoholic beverages.
Moreover, Paul suggests using wooden floors to boost its beauty further. The bar area should also include a counter, chairs, and a table for guests.
2. Design A Cocktail Corner
The cocktail corner design is ideal for homes where there is insufficient area to prepare a full-sized bar.
By installing a bar sink and using a tray to transfer the drinks, you’ll be able to prepare a functional mini bar.
For additional decors, place a few soda bottles, a house plant, and some pieces of uncut/sliced limes.
3. Modern Home Bar
Adding a modern home bar might just be what’s missing from your home. This unique bar produced by Pineapple House Interior Design is adored for its contemporary look and functionality.
The modern home bar design comes with two wine refrigerators (full-sized), shelving, a sink, cabinets for storage, and enough open floor space. Colored dark blue, the cabinetry is best suited to be placed opposite the fireplace.
Moreover, the wet bar also includes floating glass and brass shelves. This design is suitable for homes with limited space as the multilayered bar doesn’t take much horizontal space.
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4. Window-Accessible Bar
This idea is similar to a closet, only it uses a window to peek into the bar. Also called a swim-up bar, it allows you to access the bar from inside and outside.
Also, this design can be used for both indoor and outdoor settings. The window bar comes in handy during summer as you can serve as a bartender and also hang out with your pals.
The swim-up bar is also very easy to prepare and doesn’t need many resources. So, be assured that it’s not going to cut a deep hole in your pocket.
5. Install A Standalone Bar
A standalone bar is not a full-sized bar and doesn’t require a renovation to get installed.
All you have to do is purchase a standalone shelf that matches the theme/color of your existing wet bar. You can buy one for a price range between $50 to $500 based on the size and quality of the materials required for its construction.
Add a wine rack, a cocktail maker, a few glasses for wine and drinks, and a few bottles of spirits. Your custom bar is ready for serving.
6. Build A TV Bar
Do you have a vintage TV lying somewhere around in your house? Guess what, you can transform it into a customized home bar.
Unlike modern LCD flat-screen televisions, a vintage TV has sufficient space to stack multiple bottles of spirits on the inside and at the top of its surface. Use the interior of the TV to store your spirits, while you can place the bar accessories on its top surface. Add some wheels and you’ll have a functional mobile bar.
This idea is easy to execute and budget-friendly too. However, the cathode ray tubes used by the vintage TV can electrocute a person if they hold a live charge. So, it’s better to be safe than sorry. If you’re inexperienced in handling electronics, it might be best to take an expert’s opinion before you green-lit the project.
7. Add A Beer Bottle Chandelier
Buying a new chandelier can cost thousands of dollars depending on the size and materials used. Or, you can take a few creative liberties and build a DIY chandelier at home.
Prepare an attractive homemade chandelier using items bound for the trash can. You’ll need around 14 to 20 bottles, colored Christmas lights, and a few stucco wire corner pieces. Make openings for the bottles with wire cutters and snip the wires into the bottles. Next, place the lights into the bottles and secure them with the wires.
Then, using the stucco wire corner pieces, suspend your DIY chandelier in the air and tighten up any loose ends. Alternatively, you can use this design to make chandeliers out of wine bottles, coke bottles, and other spirits bottles.
8. Repurpose Wine Barrel Bar
Turn an old wine/whiskey barrel into a fully-functional bar with a vintage appearance. While you can purchase a repurposed wine barrel liquor cabinet, it is much more fun and cheap to do it yourself.
However, you’ll need basic carpentry skills to pull off this design. Cut a piece from the barrel’s side to serve as an access point for the interior. Add a few circular pieces of wood to create a multi-level bar. Using some hinges and the piece you cut from the barrel, prepare a door for your bar.
Also, you can add a wooden platform on the top of a barrel to turn it into a ba island.
9. Use Space Below The Stairs
Under-stairs bars are perfect for homes with limited living space. It serves as a piece of decor and a spot to hang out after returning from work.
The space below the stairs is one of the most unused spots inside a house. With a few DIY ideas, you can transform the under-stairs space to create a custom baar.
Use a kitchen island as the platform for your bar. It’s best to use an island with sufficient interior space to display your spirits. Further, the top of the island can be used as a place to showcase your bar inventory like a corkscrew, cocktail shaker, wine decanter, champagne bucket, and more.
The below-the-stairs bar featured in the above figure is built by Blakely Interior Design. The wet bar comes with a marble countertop, floating shelves, a mini fridge, and blue cabinets.
10. Use An Artistic Backsplash
Artistic backsplash can be used as a creative background for your home.
Backsplashes are primarily used for protecting the walls against splashes from hard-to-remove liquids. But, they can also be used as a beautiful art piece for your home bar’s background.
The wall directly behind the bar is often the first thing people notice. As first impressions matter the most, you’ll need to create an eye-pleasing background to keep your guests/visitors engaged.
There are hundreds of options to create a catchy backsplash; you’ll need to figure out which one works the best for you. The artistic options use multiple materials, including stone tiles, subway tiles, mirrors, white marble, wood, glass, bricks, and granite.
11. Hollywood-Themed Home Bar
Hollywood-themed home bar is a perfect design idea for movie lovers. By now, you might have noticed that almost all Hollywood movies feature at least one bar scene.
To create a personal Hollywood-inspired bar, you’ll need to either build or buy a counter made of American black walnut timber along with mesh curtains to add a vintage vibe. Similarly, add a few stools & floating shelves and install mood lighting to complete the authentic bar look.
The photo above shows the interiors of a vacation house located in La Quinta, California. The Kovac Design Studio uses stools from Restoration Hardware and curtails designed by Whiting & Davis.
The Hollywood-themed bar is not suitable for people looking to save money. You’ll need to spend at least a few hundred to even thousands of dollars for buying the necessary materials.
12. Bar With A Tropical Twist
Build a tropical-themed home bar using cheap materials like bamboo, wood, and straw. If you’ve ever been to a tropical island, you might have had the privilege of enjoying a chilled drink while seated at a straw hut.
Recreate your tropical experience with this unique DIY home bar. Build a counter using bamboo or any other locally-available timber. Add a few bar stools, a straw lantern, some bamboo baskets, a houseplant, and a few pieces of ceramic.
This design is suitable for both indoors and outdoors. If you are planning to build a backyard garden bar, don’t forget to add a roof made of straw or synthetic fibers; it will be a dealbreaker during summer.
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13. Use Bar Appliances As Decor
Bar accessories like cocktail shakers, decanters, and champagne buckets can be used as pieces of decor while also serving their literal purposes.
The way you set up your bar appliances can determine its overall look. Arrange your drinkware like wine glasses, cups, mugs, and other accessories neatly to give it a vintage feel.
Adding a uniquely-designed decanter will go a long way even if you have to spend a few hundred dollars to buy it.
14. Cabin Home Bar
Cabin bar designs are best suited for escaping the reality of living in a crowded and experience the solitude of the woods.
Most of us, at some point in our lives, have dreamed about owning a wooden cabin deep in the woods. But, as reality kicked in, also came to the realization that we neither had the money nor time to make it possible.
The cabin bar design is not necessarily cheap but it is worth the money. Build a wooden counter using locally-available oak timber and add some leather-stitched stools, vintage lamps, and paver flooring. If you have the budget, it’s best to add a barn wood ceiling to make the bar look perfectly like a cabin.
15. Transform Beer Kegs Into Stools
Empty beer kegs can be transformed into stools for your ideal man cave or home bar.
Simply, drink all the beer inside the keg before starting the project. This design can be executed in one of two ways. You can either purchase a keg stool kit to turn the keg shell into a stool. Or, you can use your handyman skills to complete the project.
A keg stool kit comes with a 32-inch bar height with a swivel seat that rotates 360°. Using the kit, you can transform the empty keg into a stool within minutes. However, if you are looking for a challenge, watch one of the DIY videos on YouTube and try finishing the job without outside assistance.