Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Time for a home bar build...

You know, I got to thinking about a two weeks ago that I needed to build something.  What does every home brewer dream about having in their homes?  A bar to drink their home brew at!  I don't have a ton of space to go crazy, so to get this one by the wife I had to think small.  Then it hit me... what if it was small enough to fit in the space allowed, and could be taken apart and moved easily upstairs for entertaining guests, then tore apart and brought back down to the man cave where it would spent most of it's life?  How could she possibly say no to that?  Well, long story short, she dug the idea.  

So now I have to figure out how to do it.  I drew inspiration from my uncle David, who can build anything with wood.  Hell, I wouldn't be surprised to hear he figured out how to build a wooden wood burning stove.  I also drew inspiration from my uncle Ben.  He's not really my uncle per se, he's my wife's dad's sister's husband.  Close enough.  Anyway, he has a cool 8 foot bar in his house he bought at a furniture store for more than I want to spend.  I also don't think his travels as well as mine, but I admit bias since I built the damn thing.  

I know you are all dying to see it, so here goes...


I figured the base would be the best place to start.  Nearest the camera is the front, where the step will be.  The slots on the sides will hold the side and front panels in place.  I imagined building 5 separate pieces that fit together.  A base, two sides, the front, and the bartop.  Wait until you see how I keep everything together... 


Here I am test fitting the left side of the bar.  Nice and snug so it will stay in place, but not crazy hard to get it out.  Just how I wanted it.


Here is all five pieces framed out and they seem to be fitting together nicely.  Now to add some hardware and trim it out...


 This to me is the genius of the bar.  The silver latch on the bottom half of the picture holds the front to the sides, and the two towards the top of the picture hold the bar to the sides. 

  
Here is the arm rests coming together.  To the untrained eye, it almost looks like I know what I'm doing.  (Keep quite uncle Dave, this is my moment!)


   Here we have the bar together, trimmed up, footrest and beer gutter in place, all I have left to do is finish the wood.  Still debating on how to do it, but it will most likely be stained as dark as humanly possible.  My strength is framing, not finishing.  Coincidentally, as I took this picture I had about an hour before guests arrive to watch a football game and drink some home brew.  Let's see just how portable this thing is and get it in the house!


Here it is in the upstairs entertainment spot.  Now you can see why I want to finish it dark, to match the wonderful hutch my wife got.  I was happy with how manageable the pieces were by themselves, and how solid the bar really was when put together and clamped down.  MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! 

Now I need to start getting ready to brew, it's been too long!  Thanks for reading.

3 comments:

  1. hi, i came across your site while looking for plans on how to build a home bar. loving the name and logo for your homebrew too by the way. i was curious if you happened to have dimensions for your bar? i'm interested in building something pretty similar. if you could send me an email at 08rsic (at) gmail.com with any more pics or info, it'd be greatly appreciated...thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I also stumbled across this looking for a nice home bar. If I put the work in building it, I'd like to be able to take it with me when I move so I'm curious, do you have the materials list/any other tips or I-wish-I-would-have-done-this-insteads? if you need to send to me email its collin.forrester at gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Looks like Uncle Dave & Ben got their plans from http://www.barplan.com/homebarplans/EHBP-05_tailgatebar.htm

    ReplyDelete