How to Create a Built-In Home Bar

You may have just finished draining your champagne glass on New Year’s Eve, but it’s not too soon to resolve to make your next home gathering more stylish, more sophisticated and easier by adding a home bar in 2014. Here’s what to know if you’d like to get it done.

Project: Adding a built-in home bar.

Why: “Home bars create a special place to store and serve drinks closer to the living space,” says New York architect James Wagman. “If the bar is near the action, the host can create wonderful drinks while socializing with guests and family.”

Built-in bars don’t need to be limited to homes blessed with abundant square footage. A built-in bar can be the width of a single cabinet. Wagman installed this diminutive but mighty bar at the entrance to an apartment’s living room. Pocket doors come out of the wall to hide the unit when it’s not in use.




Who to hire: More bells and whistles require more pros. A well-stocked bar, such as this crisp blue entertaining space by South Park Design Build in Toronto, would require an architect or interior designer to design the space and a contractor to build it. The building crew might include a carpenter to construct custom cabinetry, a plumber for a sink and an ice maker, an electrician to add outlets for a refrigerator and other appliances, a tile setter to install a backsplash and a painter to provide the finishing touches after the hammering is done.


Project length: Most professionals interviewed for this article — including the creator of this bar, San Francisco interior designer Tineke Triggs of Artistic Designs for Living — say you should allow a little more than a month to add a built-in bar. However, David Miller of David Michael Miller and Associates in Scottsdale, Arizona, cautions that the more customized the project is, the longer it will take. “There’s a wide range,” he says, “but if you are building it from scratch, it may take six to eight months due to custom millwork.”


Cost: As with every home improvement project, the cost will depend on the scope of your project, your choice of materials and finishes, and the price of labor where you live. Luly Melarti, a designer and architect at TerraCotta Properties in Decatur, Georgia, estimates that adding a bar similar to this one she did for entertaining-loving clients could cost around $9,200 — and that’s if there’s an existing niche where it could be placed and walls don’t need to be moved. She breaks it down this way:

Design fees and labor: $4,000Cabinets: $3,000Refrigerator: $1,200Countertop: $600Mirror backsplash: $400
“Obviously, there’s a wide range in costs, depending on how much work needs to be done,” she says. “If you don’t move walls and you don’t add plumbing, you are going to save money.”

Melarti notes that this client opted for no sink and installed a tough Corian countertop. “If you choose a more expensive stone, you will need to babysit it. With this material you don’t need to worry about etching from wine, lemons or limes,” she says.


San Francisco interior designer Anastasia Faiella created this bar for coffee and stronger drinks with her architect husband Andre Rothblatt, and says a similar feature could cost between $13,000 and $15,000, not including design fees. “This example is a very high-end, customized project, and the homeowner wanted things to be extra special,” she says. “The design included a wine refrigerator and an espresso maker that needed plumbing.” She estimates costs this way:

Custom cabinets (materials, labor, installation): $5,000Labor for appliance installation: $3,000Miele coffee system: $2,999ULine Echelon series wine refrigerator: $2,899Countertop (wood with a decorative finish): $1,000
See options for more inexpensive freestanding bars


Permit needed: If you are adding plumbing or electricity or moving walls, you will need a permit.

Best time of year to do it: Eric Adelman of South Park Design Build says building a bar is a seasonless project. “Anytime is the right time for this project,” he says. “Especially if you are thirsty!”

Architect Nico van der Meulen in Randburg, South Africa, says if you are staging a major remodel or building a new home, plan for a bar early in the process. “Begin right at the start of the planning and building to ensure there is ample space for it,” he says.


First step: Miller suggests doing your homework. “To start the brainstorming process, look at sites like Houzz or design magazines to see what other people, designers and architects are doing,” he says.

Jason Urrutia of Urrutia Design in Sausalito, California, suggests starting small with a bar cart or tray. “You can move it around and see where it works best before investing thousands of dollars,” he says.

Once you’ve decided to make it more permanent, “if you want a professional look, hire a professional,” Miller advises.

Find a home pro near you

Tell us: What’s on your wish list for the coming year?

URL: How to Create a Built-In Home Bar http://www.decor-ideas.org/cases-view-id-22457.html