Hello friends. Some of you may recall a thread I posted recently about a bar I was in the process of building. It's my first ever REAL woodworking project, and I'm pretty happy with it overall.
My first major project in (what I guess you could call) woodworking was about a year ago. I moved into a new house, and the kitchen was functional, but ass-ugly. So I busted my ass and redid the entire thing. I got rid of the old appliances, ripped down the ugly backsplash mural painted by the previous owner, sanded and stained the cabinets and doors, and replaced all of the hardware.
It was a tremendous pain in the ass, but worth it in the end. However while this was a lot of sanding and staining, I can't really legitimately consider it true woodworking so I don't count that as my first ever project. Since moving into this same house, I've long wanted to extend the wet bar area to include an actual serving bar. I looked around at various bars on Amazon and other sites, and had an impossible time finding exactly what I wanted and needed. So I recently decided it was in my best interest to attempt to build one custom. This, ladies and gents, is my actual first woodworking project.
First thing was to get an idea of how big the thing was going to be. The area in question is relatively small and I don't want or need anything huge anyway, just a simple serving/utility station that looks nice and can tuck away my mini-fridge. So I started by laying out a faux-frame around the area, and cutting the boards to size for a general idea of the size.
Standard bar height is 42" tall, so I planned for 39" 2x4s with one on top and one underneath, building a frame that's exactly 42" tall. Then I built the skeletal frame:
Unfortunately I didn't take the bar TOP into consideration, so the end product is going to be slightly taller than standard. But this is my first DIY project so I'll forgive myself for these small oversights.
I then added rails to the inside of the left side of the bar, and used a leftover piece of pressure-treated wood I had laying around for the interior back wall:
The idea was that it was going to have an open shelf on the upper-left for holding various liquor bottles, and then a closed 2 door cabinet in the lower-left for other random storage. That turned out to be a little much, so I went with a two-level shelving area on the left. I'd also built the fridge compartment tall enough to accommodate mini-fridges up to 33" tall in case I ever replace the one I have with a larger one.
I have lots of experience with electrical wiring, so I included two built-in outlets in the bar - one in the back-bottom of the fridge area, and one on the outer-left side of the bar. The outer outlet has built-in USB ports so guests can easily charge any devices they have with them.
After completing the interior cabinet walls, I went ahead and wired in the first outlet. This is the external decorative outlet that includes USB ports in addition to the standard receptacles.
Next step was to arrange for moulding to go around the edges of the bar top. Most bars have a lip along the edge so if you spill a drink, the liquid doesn't roll off the edge of the bar and drip onto the floor. Unfortunately nobody around here sells half-round moulding (and I didn't want to cram two pieces of quater-round together), so I picked up some dowels and made my own:
Then I completed the refrigerator compartment including the second wired outlet:
From there, it was a matter of getting the outer walls onto the structure and securing them in place. Once that was done, it was also a good idea to test the outlet to make sure everything was working the way it needed to be. My Lava Lamp made an excellent tester.
After that it turned into a pretty big push. The bar surface was added, and unfortunately once this was done I discovered that I made a mistake calculating the lengths of the half-round moulding. I didn't take into consideration the overhang of the moulding going around the top of the bar, so each of the half-round lengths was an inch too short. I picked up more closet rod, cut them to the CORRECT length, and then sliced them in half and attached them to the bar. I also attached the trim, dividing the front into two squares, and finished all of the angles with quarter-round. Then I countersunk all of the nails, filled the gaps with wood filler, and sanded everything really well.
Finally it was time to assemble the shelving area. Unfortunately this is the part of the bar that I'm least happy with, but it turned out functional. After that was done I filled and sanded everything once again, and construction is finally complete:
All it needs now is one final sanding, a twice-over with some tack cloths, and then staining and sealing. I'm leaning toward a cherry or espresso stain, with a poly finish.
This project was a pain in the ass at times, but tremendously rewarding. Thanks for reading, and I hope you like my work. Even though most of you can make something infinitely better in half the time. :)
Submitted March 01, 2015 at 12:09AM by Accipiter http://ift.tt/1EWk21e woodworking
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