9. Take the Stairs
During the renovation of a beachside home in St. Pete Beach, Florida, designers Michelle Miller and Ciera Thompson of Michelle Miller Design filled an empty space under a dining room-adjacent staircase with a small home bar that’s equipped with a beverage fridge and an ice maker. Custom glass-and-brass bistro shelving makes use of the awkward gap between the countertop and bottom of the staircase, and beachy baskets fill another gap to the right of one of the skinny Shaker-style cabinets.
8. Poolside Refreshment
Brittany Truett of design firm True Revival gave a Wrentham, Massachusetts, basement wet bar “Cali-cool modern style” with slate blue inset cabinets, happy geometric backsplash tile, light wood floating shelves and surf-themed artwork. The basement leads out to a pool, making the L-shaped bar — which has a TV and seating for four — especially popular when the family entertains during the summer.
7. Beer and a Booth
This beverage and coffee station in Melrose, Massachusetts, is part of a kitchen remodeled by lead designer Amy Tangorra and her team at Our House Design + Build. It has a wine fridge, a copper prep sink, a soapstone-look engineered stone countertop, reeded glass doors on an upper cabinet, a beer tap and open shelves for glassware and mugs. The warm wood cabinetry coordinates with the kitchen cabinets, and the backsplash’s handmade leaf-shaped teal tiles coordinate with the banquette and dining chairs that sit just across from it.
6. Overarching Idea
Arched architectural features and decorative elements echo throughout this San Francisco home designed by Jeni Gamble of Gamble + Design, including in this striking bar niche. In addition to the arched shape of the niche itself, the design of the blue-green cabinet doors includes a curved play on Shaker-style door frames. The cabinetry’s black hardware complements the dark countertop, and a modern pendant light pops in front of moody ombre wallpaper.
5. A Fine Mesh
When reimagining the kitchen of a historic Victorian house in Columbus, Ohio, designer Laura Watson and design consultant Shannon Tannehill of The Cleary Co. were careful to ensure that its style meshed with that of the rest of the home. This bar area sits within that kitchen and shares its dark green cabinetry, quartz countertop, walnut details and overall consistency with the home’s original architectural features. Speaking of mesh, Watson, dressed up the uppermost cabinets with metal mesh grilles that coordinate with the brass hardware.
4. Artistic Flourish
This Bluffton, South Carolina, wet bar is in a prominent location in the home’s dining room, so Tom and Leighann Markalunas of Markalunas Architecture Group embraced the opportunity to make a statement. The bar has a Mont Blanc quartzite countertop, a backsplash made of porcelain matte black picket tile, a beverage fridge and ice maker built into custom white oak cabinets, and an undermount sink. Floating shelves that coordinate with the satin gold faucet flank a colorful abstract artwork illuminated by a picture light.
3. Tie One On
Zoom into the marble mosaic backsplash of this Warren, New Jersey, beverage station to see pretty bowtie-shaped brass accents that coordinate with the cabinet hardware, sconce and faucet. Part of a kitchen designed by Alison Melnick of Catherine Rose Design, the beverage area has knotty wood cabinetry that coordinates with the kitchen island and contrasts with the creamy white perimeter cabinetry. Melnick used the same mosaic tile throughout, which helps tie the kitchen together.
2. Elegant Restraint
This coastal-style charcoal-and-white bar sits in a living room of a lovely lakeside home in Charlotte, Vermont, designed by Cliff Deetjen of Peregrine Design Build and Lauren Miles. The bar — custom-built by Wooden Hammer — has a simple elegance and thoughtful details, including specific custom pullouts for bottle and bar tool storage, a wine fridge, a 24-inch fridge drawer, aged brass hardware, open shelves featuring custom wood stemware racks, and shiplap backing.
1. Coffee to Cocktails
When redesigning an Acton, Massachusetts, kitchen for an active family, Gabrielle Bove of Opaline Interiors Studio reconfigured the layout and relocated a dining area in order to accommodate this hardworking beverage station, which has a stainless steel sink, a beverage fridge and an ice maker. In the morning it functions as a coffee station; later it transitions into a grab-and-go beverage zone for the kids. At night, it transforms into a cocktail bar for the grownups. Its earthy style comes compliments of cerused white oak cabinets, a black leathered soapstone countertop and hand-glazed ceramic tile.
10. Secret Stash
Inspired by Prohibition-era speakeasies, a motorized panel slides in front of the wall-mounted wine collection in this Kansas City, Kansas, bar by Schloegel Design Remodel, hiding the bottles — and protecting them from light — behind a dark wood backsplash. The homeowner’s collection of rare whiskeys, on the other hand, is proudly showcased against a backdrop of antiqued mirror.