Our bar cabinet!
Documenting our first actual DIY project for our apartment!
We’ve been searching for a bar cabinet for our living room for a few months. Although the internet is rife with options for bar carts, we knew we couldn’t go with a traditional, open bar cart for a couple reasons. One of those reasons is that Blueberry and Piper would just go in and knock everything over (including some very special glassware), and another being that cats just produce a ton of dust and cat hair, which would inevitably land in the glasses and on the bottles. Gross, but a reality with two cats. So we needed a bar cabinet. I had my heart set on this one from Ikea, but it’s been sold out forever, so I turned to Facebook marketplace.
After weeks of searching, we found a great little cabinet for $35! It wasn’t real wood, but it did have real glass panels and a mirrored back which were two huge pluses. So after picking it up, and driving around with it in the back of my car for a few more weeks, we finally had a free weekend to work on it!
After picking up our supplies from the Home Depot, we stopped to grab some bagels and coffee before rolling up our sleeves and getting to work.
Step 1: Set up the workspace and tools. We laid out the drop cloth, took out the glass panels and some of the hardware, and taped off the mirror in the back. (Shoutout to Ryan who actually did all the unscrewing and hardware wrangling.)
Step 2: Sand! My dad stopped by to grab us some tools to borrow and give us a quick demo on sanding, and we got to it! After sanding we gave it a quick dusting off, and rub down with some Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds.
Step 3: Paint! We used a paint/primer combo in an evergreen bough color. We contemplated leaving the feet/bottom section of the cabinet unpainted, but I unfortunately scuffed it with the sandpaper so we decided to just paint it. We gave it one coat on the interior, and two on the exterior. After painting, we were pretty pooped, so we went home for some quick lunch and a nap before heading back to the parental’s house to finish it up.
Step 4: Hardware. We (Ryan) reassembled the glass panels and reinstalled the hardware. (Caught my dad doing a very dad gesture in the reflection below).
Step 5: After cleaning up our mess, we schlepped our newly painted bar cabinet home! And we. Are. Obsessed. I could finally move our liquor bottles from my desk to a proper home! No more work day temptations! (Just kidding.) The cabinet only had one shelf when we picked it up, so it works perfectly for displaying glassware on top, and bottles below.
The first step of pulling this corner together has been completed!
We love how it came out! And while we’re excited to have it in place, our vision for it isn’t completely fulfilled. We’re planning to get a cut of butchers block or marble to cover the top and actually extend off the back a couple extra inches to meet the wall and give us more working space for the bar top. I know it may not make sense in a future home, but for now, it’ll serve its purpose.
We’re also not done styling that corner! We have a mirror picked out for above the bar cart, and plans to hang one of Ryan’s photography prints on the wall to the right. The last element will be some sort of lighting (either candle sconce or battery powered lamp). TBD, and to be continued!
This entry wouldn’t be complete without acknowledging two very key players who made this project nearly impossible. My geriatric dog, Brooklyn, and one year old dog, Indy. Thanks to my mom and sister who decided to go to take advantage of the 75 degree November day and go to the beach, Brooklyn, who has severe separation anxiety, needed to be as close to me if not touching me at all times. Indy on the other hand wanted to keep us on our toes, and had us chasing him around the yard with various items he had stolen, which included a pair of underwear from the laundry room, our drop cloth, paint stir stick, and screwdriver. He denies all of this, as you can see from the photos below.
