Homemade Bar

A few months ago we were riding around when we passed an antique store we had been in a few times. We decided to pull in and see what was new. As we got out of the car we saw this cool armoire sitting outside in front of the store. We checked it out and found it was an old TV cabinet with drawers and a turn table for the television inside.

The finish on the piece was really cool and it had these pretty metal X's in each frame of the door. The storage capacity was great in that there were three drawers, open shelves and a large open area at the top that Brent knew he could fill in with more shelves, depending on what we wanted to store in there. Overall it was a pretty nice piece, but would need some TLC to clean it up a bit. We weren't sure exactly what we would do with it but it seemed like a piece we could definitely use, in our living room, in a guest bedroom, somewhere.

So, we did the haggle dance for a few minutes and ended up buying the piece for $125 dollars.

We loaded her up and we were on our way. 

This was right in the middle of our major renovations so the piece sat in our solarium for months while we worked on the house. Every now and then we would admire the piece and talk about what we would do with it. Then, one day Brent had the brilliant idea to turn it into a bar. At the time we were in the thick of finalizing our cabinetry layout in the kitchen and we both realized we would not have a lot of extra space in the kitchen. In fact, we knew we would be storing a lot of our dishes in a china cabinet, so there definitely wouldn't be room for bar ware and alcohol in our kitchen cabinets. 

So, we held on to the bar idea and went on with our renovations. After we started moving furniture into the house we decided the armoire/bar would go in the living room and would flank the door heading into the solarium which leads to the deck. We figured when we entertain it would be nice to have the bar set up in the living room so everyone can have easy access whether they were over for a cookout on the deck or watching a UGA game in the living room. And when entertaining was not going on we would keep it closed and it would just be a nice piece of furniture to add to our space.

Now that we found the piece a home in our living room it was time for project re purpose TV cabinet into Bar. 

It started out like this:

We wanted to cover up the back of the piece with a mirror, not only to cover up the hole, but to give the piece some depth. We lucked out and found a piece of plate glass mirror at Home Depot that was the size we needed.  Brent covered the back of the armoire and the back of the glass with Liquid Nails. 

                                                     

                                                    

   and set the mirror in place. 

                                               

Once the mirror was in place it was time to frame it out. We bought some little rosettes and fluting at Home Depot. 

And Brent installed them around the plate glass mirror to create a frame. 

Because this piece needed to look as good open as it does closed we wanted to jazz up the frame a bit so we applied a nice gray stain that we thought would compliment the interior of the cabinet nicely.

We got a little stain happy and decided to paint the turn table as well. 

Wah lah! Isn't the contrast nice?

Our next step was to add some pieces to enhance the storage and make this piece look more like a bar. First we installed wine holders on each side of the cabinet. I was afraid adding these would make the bar top area seem crowded, but I was happy to see the space was still nice and open after these pieces were installed and our wine was in place.

 We ordered some wine glass holders and installed them on the top of the inside of the cabinet. 

Several of our friends and family members gave us wine glasses for wedding gifts, and now we have the perfect place to display and store them. 

We went to work organizing and storing bottles of various liquor and mixers on the shelves below.

Wait, I'm not finished yet.

What happened next was all Brent. As if turning this cabinet into a bar was not enough, we had to  take it to the next level. It all started one day when he put a dibs on one of the drawers.

Urban Dictionary's definition of Dibs:

"Dibs - the most powerful force in the universe, it is used to call possession of a certain object or idea. There are very few things that trump dibs." 

We had plans to store coasters, coozies, aerators, etc...in some of the drawers, but didn't have an exact plan for all of them. But all that changed the day Brent decided to turn one of the drawers into a humidor for his cigars. Yes, a humidor. By the time he mentioned the idea to me he had it all planned out in his head.

He took the measurements of the drawer and lined the inside walls and bottom with cedar wood. 

Next he cut a top for his drawer humidor. 

Once the top was in place it was time to add hinges and hardware.

And finally he stained the inside of the box using the same finish we used on the mirror frame and the turn table. 

How cool is that? He's crafty that Brent.

The humidor/drawer is the first drawer in the stack and such a genius use of the space. I'd say we got our money's worth out of this piece of furniture. We've tried the bar out a few times and it works well. We still have a decent amount of space left inside some of the drawers and the shelves. It's crazy how exciting it is to be organized, even if it's only party gear organization, it counts :) CHEERS!

All photos are my own.