DIYers Share 9 Tips for Building the Ultimate Bar At Home

A home bar sounds like a more difficult project than it is. Here we explain the process with the help of DIYers who did it successfully.

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Introduction to Home Bars

There’s more than one way to build a bar, as DIYers Mike Kinross, Jason Meeks, John Solis, Dean Peacock and Roger Dunning can attest. You can do the job with lots of different materials. I have the good fortune to live in a redwood forest, so my material of choice is redwood.

Slabs cut with a chain saw from downed logs make attractive, durable and moisture-resistant bar-top materials, although sanding one to make a smooth flat surface can take time.

To speed things up, I laid mine flat on the ground and went over it with a floor sander before finishing with a belt, disk and pad sander. I used the best part of the slab for the bar surface and turned the rest of it into the support structure, which I then covered with plywood.

If you don’t have a redwood slab kicking around your property, you have several other material options, including stone, steel and other types of wood. Before you get out your tools, though, you need to make a plan to ensure the bar fits where you want it, and has enough space and height to allow people to gather comfortably and share the good times.

Anatomy of a Bar

A bar has a flat surface like a table, but it isn’t a table. For one thing, it’s built-in. For another, it’s always longer than it is wide. The length can vary according to the situation, but you should follow some height and width standards to make it accessible and affordable.

• Standard bar height is 42 inches. Bar stools will be easier to find if you stick with that height.
• The overhang should be at least eight inches. With knee room, more is better.
• The minimum stool spacing is two feet of bar per seat. That’s plenty of room for small people like me but may feel crowded to larger ones, so go to 30 inches if you can.
• The bar top should be 16 to 20 inches wide, including the molding. More than that wastes space.
• A traditional bar features a drink rail, a flat area about four inches wide on the service side for pouring drinks. This is an optional feature on home bars.
• A drip lip on the service side keeps liquids from running off the bar top. It’s usually a thin strip of protruding wood. I didn’t want to add molding to my bar, so I improvised by creating a shallow trough around the perimeter with a disk sander.
• A lower counter is the perfect place to slice lemons, set bottles or install a bar sink. It adds complexity to the project and eats up a lot of space, so I skipped it, as many home bar builders do.
• The foot rail should be seven to nine inches off the floor. Metal railing is expensive ($300 to $400 for an eight-foot run), so you might want to save by making a simple ledge from wood, as I did.

My bar doesn’t have molding, but most others do. Molding serves three purposes:

• • It keeps spilled drinks from dribbling off the bar and onto your lap.
  • It provides a comfy armrest and lets you properly slouch over your beer.
  • It makes your home bar look more like a actual one.

  

  Courtesy Jason Meeks

  Planning Your Bar

  DIY bar builders all agree planning is tough. With so many dimensions and space considerations, pencil and paper drawings just don’t provide a clear preview of the final results.

  “A mock-up is the best way to plan, and a lot cheaper than making changes after the bar is built,” says Meeks, from Stevens Point, Wisconsin. He built his bar a few years ago and wants to upgrade the top from wood to concrete.

  It pays to take an hour or two to build a model. Scavenge some cardboard or pick up some foam insulation at a home center (about $20 for a 4- by 8-ft. sheet) and use that to build a mock-up. That way you can adjust things in 3D and get everything just how you want it.

  When the time comes to work with more expensive materials, you’ll know exactly which cuts to make.