You cherish a fancy drink at home, and you want to highlight this important aspect of your lifestyle in your home décor with an impeccably decorated bar. There’s just one problem: home bars often look like muddled afterthoughts, shoved into dark corners of the house and filled with jumbled liquor bottles and mismatched furniture.
If you want your bar to look luxurious and inviting – and not like the grungiest corner of Cheers – you might use the following tips to design a beautiful bar in your home.
Designate a Larger Space for Your Bar
A bar cart or cabinet shoved into the corner of your dining room may be enough to house your liquor bottles, but it does little to create a comfortable and inviting space for you and your friends to imbibe. Instead, you should designate a larger space for your home bar, where you and guests can spread out and relax with a variety of fun drinks. If you have a large, open room, you might separate a portion of it using cabinets, countertops and bar stools that fit with your interior theme. You might also take over an entire room for your bar, so you can fill extra space with plush seating where you might lounge and enjoy your cocktail of choice.
Integrate the Bar Into Your Existing Aesthetic
Many people imagine a bar as a dimly lit, sensuous space filled with dark colors and rich textiles – but it doesn’t have to be. Your home bar should suit your unique interior aesthetic, which might mean that you keep your bar light and bright, with plenty of natural materials and vibrant hues. It is important that you take inspiration from your current home design when upscaling your bar; otherwise, your bar will look vastly out of place in your home, and you will likely want to remodel your bar again too soon.
An easy way to integrate your bar into your home is to use decorations you already have to elevate your bar space. For example, you might pull artwork that is already hanging in your living room to adorn the walls around your bar. You might place the glassware from your kitchen on a shelf behind the bar to serve as additional décor. Upscaling your bar does not need to break the bank, especially if you can be creative with your use of existing home décor.
Invest in Must-have Appliances
A bar works better when it is appropriately equipped with the tools you need to serve your drinks of choice. Of course, the appliances you acquire will depend on what you expect to serve from your home bar. For example, if you have a taste for fine wine, you almost certainly need a wide cooler to keep your bottles at the exact right temperature. Then again, if artisanal cocktails are your preference, you might be interested in cocktail machines, nugget nice makers or gadgets like smokers or infusion kits. These appliances will add interest to your bar while making it a more fun and functional space in your home.
Diversify Bar Lighting
Like the kitchen, the home bar is a space where you will be completing tasks that require effective illumination — mincing, dicing, muddling, julienning, measuring and more. However, glaring overhead lights rarely help people relax, even when they have a perfectly prepared drink in hand. Thus, you should install a range of different lighting types to ensure that you have full control over the ambiance of your bar. Some must-have lighting options include:
Task lighting, which include pendants that hang low over your bar countertop.
Ambient lighting, which include recessed or wall-mounted fixtures with light that bounces of surfaces to provide general illumination of the space.
Accent lighting, which include spotlights or under-cabinet lights, to highlight certain features of the space.
Decorative lighting, which include neon lights and illuminated signs to add additional visual interest.
If you want to establish your home as the go-to spot for entertainment amongst friends and family, having a home bar is a must. By putting a little more effort into the size and look of your bar, you can ensure that your bar is cozy, functional and appealing to all.