Having a wet bar is one of my favorite features of our house. One, because I love the vino. And two, because we can keep the liquor of the gods away from tiny, grabby hands that roam our kitchen.
Our bar was pretty lack-luster when we moved in. We painted the walls and installed some shelves to get my vintage barware collection on display, and then pretty much stopped. I had high hopes (but low motivation) for this room.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. The home renovation and reorganization bug always hits me in January, and I thought this bar mini-makeover (not to be confused with a mini-bar makeover, which would be totally different) would be a great project to tackle. You know, since it had been on my to-do list since last summer.
Some before photos. Old wood cabinets. Lovely baby gate. Beige walls. Ugly tile floor. Spoiler alert - 1/2 of those will still be there in the "after" photos, because I wanted to keep this entire makeover under $100.
Oh hey, swiper. This is exactly why we have a baby gate. But babies in footsie jammies can do no wrong.
- Paint ugly 70s cabinets
- Refresh cabinet hardware
- Install child proof cabinet locks so we can be rid of the ugly baby gate
- Paint baseboards
- Paint underside of bar flipper counter thingy (technical term)
- Add artwork or wall decor of some sort
- Do something to make the floor look less ugly
- Relocate laundry basket somewhere more hidden
This took an entire month. Painting takes SO much prep work, you guys.
I removed the cabinet doors and drawer fronts, sanded everything down, cleaned it up, added a coat of primer, and then two finish coats of paint, sanding down any drips that inevitably happen and re-painting those, and rehung the doors. That took 8 days. EIGHT DAYS. You have to wait 24 hours after you prime one side of the doors to flip it over and do the other side. Tick, tock, tick, tock.
At this point I went ahead and painted the underside of our bar counter flipper thingy. It's a fun little feature when you're having a party with a hired bar tender - which let me tell you, we do practically every weekend because we are socialites - but most of the time it's flipped up because we're going in and out and clearing the baby gate like an Olympic hurdler. Looking at the ugly underside of it was wearing on me. A little black craft paint and 15 minutes and that was dealt with. BOOM.
Oh, the iron? Don't you do all of your ironing in your wet bar? No? Me neither.
Oh, the iron? Don't you do all of your ironing in your wet bar? No? Me neither.
Onto the hardware. It was so perfectly 70's that I couldn't part with it. My bedroom set growing up had almost the exact same hardware, so it gave me all the feelings. Instead of replacing it and spending $8-12 per pull, I used some antique gold and antique bronze craft paint that I had lying around, brushed it VERY lightly on the highest surfaces of the hardware (leaving the nooks and crannies the original dark bronze), let it sit for about 2 minutes, and then wiped the excess off with a dry paper towel. The result was an antique brass/bronze look that contrasts nicely with the cabinets.
This is most successful if you use an old baby shower plate as a paint palette.
This is most successful if you use an old baby shower plate as a paint palette.
This is exactly why the room has sat like this for nearly 2 years. I was crippled by indecision. And laziness.
As luck would have it, the folks over at Wise Decor sent me an email after stumbling on my house tour posts on the blog. They wondered if any of their wall decal products might be a good fit for our place. I immediately thought of this bar art conundrum and - light bulb - this was totally the right solution. They have lots of standard product offerings, but you guys know me, I like custom. They were super sweet and worked with me to create a custom wall decal with my wording, size, font, and color to use in the bar. Total enablers, and I love it. Here's the link to the CHEERS design we collaborated on.
It only took about 20 minutes to install. The decal is sandwiched between sheets of paper. You line it up on the wall with some painter's tape, use this special tool that it comes with to rub the letters and transfer the decal to the wall, and then peel the paper off. Voila.
My husband was kind enough to take some photos of me doing this. Yes, I'm in my bathrobe and have wicked bed head. No, I'm not wearing makeup. I hope you still like me.
The big lettering is clearly a bold choice, but I think the tone-on-tone color choice keeps it from being too crazy. And if I ever decide that I want to do something different, it just peels off. Less commitment than even painting the wall.
Here's the final product. The painting was so tedious, but man, it was worth it. In case you're interested, the color is Benjamin Moore Chelsea Grey. It is bar none my favorite grey color for cabinetry. Not too cool, not too warm. Just right.
As far as dealing with the ugly floor, I wasn't quite brave enough to rip up the tile and install hardwood - even though I have enough of the matching wood floor in my garage to do the job. One day. I decided instead to repurpose a rug that used to be in our entryway but had been demoted to a storage shelf in the garage. Why did I not have this rug here forever?!
I still want to find a wine rack to hang up on the small side wall and replace the light fixture. And replace the counters. And the sink. And the faucet. And the floor. But other than that super-long list, the bar is done.
So glad to have this refresh done. In a perfect world I would have finished it before New Years in time for our little party, but LIFE. I suppose I need to throw a Valentine's party to make up for it. Our bartender will be so thrilled.
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