Grab a beer, this may take a while~
Alright folks, Here is a feature post that really uses those power tools, a dash of creativity, and skill that I have developed over my DIY career! This post is about the... you guessed it, bar! My husband and I recently finished our basement to add a family loungy room, bedroom, bathroom, and a bar! I could envision in my mind what I wanted the bar to look like but then I needed hard numbers and an actual design. So the next step was to design the layout in Adobe Illustrator. I just scaled up the page to 1/4" = 1' and designed away! The next step in the design was to figure out a bar front-the end look. And that inspiration came as an off-shoot of my friend April's bar in their finished basement.
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| The very beginning before anything was started~ |
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| Walls are framed~ |
The original bar design in my head was a half circle for a unique look and for functional conversations. However wonderful that idea was, it was impractical for a first time bar builder to take on such a project. I had to bring it down a couple notches, so that's how I end up with an "L" shaped bar, which is still as beautiful with the special finishing touches. I started by framing the bar like you would frame a wall, 2x4 stud across the top and bottom with 2 x 4's running vertical every 16 inches on center. I built this part with a rather large but thankfully lightweight nail gun. I looked into how high different bar stools sat and how high bar tops were in comparison to different stool height to find my wall height. Once the "L" shape had been built I made sure it was in the appropriate position by squaring it with the adjacent wall. After the wall was squared I nailed it in to our cement floor with a wonderful tool called a Ramset ($25.98 at Homedepot). This tool uses pins (nails) and .22 caliber single shot powder loads (think of a bullet). Once that was all nailed down I proceeded to build a frame for the foot rest. This was done in a similar fashion, 2 x 4's nailed together to form an "L" shape and I then used the nail gun to attach it to my framed wall bar.
So now the bones of the bar are in place and the next step was to have the inside drywalled and plywood attached to the front side. We hired a company to drywall and plaster the entire basement, so I had them drywall the inside portion of the framed bar wall. I then painted the drywalled side because this part of the bar would still be visible after cabinets and counter tops were installed. To make things easy on myself I cut down two pieces of plywood and nailed it to the front sides of the bar. With plywood on the front I wouldn't have to find studs every time I was attaching something to it.
Cabinetry and such~
My husband and I took turns laying the tile floor and then had some time away from the bar area to let it all cure. We purchased our cabinetry brought it home and installed it. So we placed the cabinets roughly in their final home. The next part was simply leveling, marking where the studs were on the adjacent wall and the bar wall, screwing in the cabinets, and hanging the wall cabinets.
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| Bar all ready for front design elements~ |
So now I nailed down the vertical strips of wood to the front of the bar. I had 1" x 3"'s on the outer most part of both sides and then nailed down 1" x 5" pieces in the centers. These were purchased in their current width but cut down on a miter saw for the correct height, then stained and attached. The next part was fairly simple. I found some PVC decorative tiles on Amazon.com that were about $8 and change each. These were fairly easy to attach because they could be cut with a scissors and adhered with liquid nails.
Rest your feet~
So the next part of the build was covering the foot rest. I bought the same kind of wood that I stained for the front of the bar, just wider pieces that would match up and could be nailed down right to the mini "L" shape studs. I was able to use the tops at their store bought width, but had to have the fronts ripped down by an inch to fit under the tops perfectly. My father-in-law, Kevin, helped me with ripping the wood since he has a table saw, and quite a few of the other wonderful tools that we utilized for our basement finish. If I would have thought this through a little better I would have build the studs of the foot rest to be the perfect height and depth for pre-cut wood. It would have just been easier in the long run.
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| Bar after front design pieces were added~ |
So I'm not going to lie, figuring out the counter tops was a little trickier than one would think. Thank goodness for the ladies in the kitchen department at Homedepot who have such wonderful software for DIY'ers like myself. The counter tops were all pretty easy except when it came to the bar top portion. There was a funky notch next to the door (see photo) and then figuring out if we had overhang on the other end cap... and overhang on the inside part! Enough to pull your hair out, regroup, and go back. So now that the counter tops were ordered there was no going back. If they didn't fit it would be on us since we didn't have someone come out and measure. Luckily all the measurements were spot on and the counter tops fit like a gem! To install the counter tops we had to screw down some boards that were approximately 5/8" thick to the top of the bar and cabinets. This gave enough of a raise that all cabinet doors could open. The final step in the counter top installation was to screw them in place. I just made sure that I bought screws that were short enough not to pierce the counter tops.
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| Counter tops are on! |
We are still trying to figure out exactly how to do the door trim for that storage space, and we are working on our packer shelf that is going to be in between the upper cabinetry. but that will come with a little more time and finding just the right pieces. One more little thing that I really want to do in the space is put a back splash. I want to put it on the six inch portion of the inside of the bar, and do a matching strip on the back counter as well just up to the bottom of the outlet and pendant light switch. But that will be in my (near) future!
Finished!
So here is a picture of the final product. The last step that I just completed this weekend was tacking on the kick boards under the cabinets and hanging the wine and beer photos. I found some great photos on google, and since they were for personal use I simply downloaded and printed. Overall cost of this project... I couldn't tell ya!
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| Beer sign: Gordmans $19.99 • Black frames: Walmart $13.00 • Photo prints: $4.00 |
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| Wine sign: Gordmans $19.99 • Black frames: Walmart $13.00 • Photo prints: $4.00 |
I think this bar turned out so spectacular and I'm pretty impressed with myself that it did on the first go round! The key to this project was taking my time and really utilizing the carpenters old adage: "Measure twice, cut once".
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