Build a Home Bar

In September of 1999, my wife and I purchased our current home, a three bedroom ranch in Huntington, Long Island. One of the criteria we were looking for when house hunting was a full basement with ceilings high enough for me to stand up (I'm 6'6" tall). Our plan from the start was to build a home bar and "rec room" in the basement.

My wife and I host two large parties for family and friends each year: Mardi Gras, and Christmas. We expect between 70 and 100 guests at each party. Because of the large number of people, we wanted the bar to be laid out and equipped much like a "real" bar so it would be capable of handling the crowd.

At the same time, we're not millionaires! We had just bought the house and had a budget of about $10,000 for the bar. All the materials with only three exceptions were purchased at the local Home Depot. The exceptions being the bar rail molding, the brass foot rail, and two pieces of 5/4 clear pine used to top the dart area ledge and the stairway.

What follows here is an accounting of what we did and how we did it. Each of the areas below discusses a part of the process:

Framing - Framing out the bar and the back bar in preparation for sheet rock and fancy stuff

Plumbing - Adding hot and cold running water and drainage for the bar sink

Electrical & AV - Wiring the outlets, switches and light fixtures as well as adding the computer network cable, video, telephone, and audio wiring

Lighting - Choosing the light fixtures and setting them in place

The Bar Top - Perhaps the most important part of any bar. How we built and finished it.

The Under Bar - The area under the bar is as just as important as the bar top, just not as visible.

The Back Bar - Creating an attractive display for the liquor bottles as well as for the glassware.