Looking for the next cool feature to add to your home? How about a bar to make entertaining guests more fun and to give you a designated space for all your bar-related supplies and items. This is a great idea for indoor spaces as well as for outdoor areas and just to be clear we’re talking about DIY bar projects, the kind that you get to build and to customize however you see fit. We can think of at least a dozen cool ideas that we can share with you so check out our favorites below.
We’ll start with this cool DIY pallet bar idea from instructables and not just because it’s a very cost-effective project but also because we really love the simple design and the overall look and we think it would look wonderful in all sorts of contexts, whether it’s a modern living room, a rustic backyard or a traditional party venue. Check out the details to find out how this particular bar was made.
There are quite a few types of materials that you can choose from for DIY bar, including wood and concrete which are among the most popular ones and also those that were used in this project featured on instructables. The combo suits this bar well mainly because of the outdoor location. Buildings the molds for the concrete frame is the most important and probably also the most time-consuming part of the project.
An important piece of information to keep in mind at this point is that it’s often easier to repurpose an existing piece of furniture than it is to start a project from scratch. There’s a cool example of remodelaholic which supports this idea. The wooden base of this DIY bar was previously a kitchen island which lacked a top. It worked out great given its dimensions and overall design. A quick makeover made everything even better.
Naturally, if you have a specific design in mind for your DIY bar, repurposing existing pieces of furniture might not be an option in which case you’re better off building everything from scratch. Check out this tutorial on strongti to find out how this L-shaped bar was made and to learn how to do something similar for your own home if you ever want to.
When trying to picture a bar, we all have different versions and different designs in mind. Some of these are more popular than others but at the end of the day it’s completely up to you to choose the option which suits you best based on the space available, the main function the bar is meant to fulfill as well as your expectations in terms of overall design and look. This DIY bar featured on ana-white has a bench-inspired design and looks really great.
A DIY bar cart is a great idea if you prefer flexibility and you want to be able to move this piece around whenever and wherever needed. You can take the bar cart out on the patio or the porch on those beautiful summer evenings when you’re enjoying the cool breeze with family or friends. You could also use this as a serving cart. Check out jaimecostiglio to find out how to build one for yourself.
This bar featured on buildsomething has a very open design which makes it lightweight, easy to build and also user-friendly, allowing you to easily store things close at hand and leaving plenty of room on the shelves for anything you might want to put there. Feel free to customize the shelves based on your own needs.
Bars are in fact very versatile. It’s not liquor and cocktail-making tools and accessories that you can store on its shelves but lots of other things too. For example, this project featured on sincerelymariedesigns shows you how make a coffee bar. This is basically a coffee station, a piece that would look lovely in the kitchen or in an open-space living room.
If space is an issue, there are definitely ways to solve this. You could build a small bar or, even better, a Murphy bar which is attached to the wall and folds open only when you need it. It would be similar to a fold-down table. You can even include some built-in shelves in the design so you have room to store the basics even when the top is folded up. Check out bunker for instructions.
Check out this other cool-looking DIY bar cart design, this time from 2beesinapod. It’s small but it’s practical and it looks pretty cute too, especially with that bright color on it. There’s a small drawer for storing tools and other little items, two open shelves right beneath it for bottles and a towel holder to the side.
You can immediately identify a few familiar items in the design of this DIY bar from 
If you’re planning to build a bar that has an industrial vibe, a great idea is to use metal pipes and fittings to make the frame. The shelves can be simple wooden boards cut to size. This combination always looks nice and you have a lot of freedom when building the frame because you can basically shape it however you want. There’s also the option to spray paint the pipes to add some color to your design. You can find out more about this project on alifedesigned.
Although a bar with lots of shelves and drawers can be very practical and storage-efficient, other more simple designs can be really great too. For instance, we really like how this DIY outdoor bar from sincerelymariedesigns turned out. It has a nice hint of rustic charm with a big open shelf at the bottom and a bunch of hooks attached to the top of the frame.
This cute bar featured on thecreativityexchange used to be a potting bench and that turned out great for the project because the bench already had a sink slot which was transformed into bucket ice. There’s a shelf at the bottom for storing all the big items and a shelf at the top with a glass rack attached to the underside.
A U-shaped bar with a generous countertop could look really cool out on the patio and you could build the entire thing yourself according to the exact proportions that you think would fit best. Start with the main supports and proceed to build the frame of the bar using wooden posts and boards. Then add the top and the bottom shelf, the raised counter sections and finally fill in the gaps on all the sides. This video tutorial on youtube guides through all the different steps.
If there’s enough space for it, you could build an entire outdoor kitchen which could also double as a bar. You can give it an L-shaped countertop, lots of built-in storage and even a few extras such as a grill, a sink and other things you might find useful out here. As for the bar itself, we think a concrete countertop would look nice and would also be very practical. Check out this youtube tutorial to find out how it’s done.
If you want an outdoor bar for summer parties and various casual gatherings with friends and family, there’s no need to overcomplicate things. Something relatively small and simple would be perfectly fine. You can build the entire thing out of wood and potentially use some reclaimed boards in the process. This one is quick and easy to build and there’s a video tutorial which explains all you need to know about the project. Check it out on youtube.
Since this is an outdoor bar, you can get away with materials that might not fit that well when used indoors. For example, you could make a wonderful-looking bar using cultured stone in combination with some wood and a granite top. If the bar is placed in an exposed area it’s important to make sure it can stand up to the elements and this particular design is a good example. If you want to find out more about it, check out the youtube tutorial which explains how it was built.
You can take things one step further and build yourself a beautiful tiki bar. Although it’s not a very complex structure, it does require more planning, more materials and attention to details compared to some of the other project we mentioned earlier. You can find the plans and a bunch of tips on how to tackle this project in this tutorial featured on youtube.
Instead of a traditional bar you can opt for something smaller like this entertainment table. It’s not just an outdoor table and it’s more practical than you might first realize. To make it you need a large planter, a PVC pipe, a round piece of plywood, concrete and a few other things which are listed on hallmarkchannel. The base of the table doubles as a cooler when you fill it with ice.
To keep the cost of your projects low, a great idea is to use reclaimed materials and repurposed items. There are lots of ingenious ways to do so. This, for example, is a lovely patio bar made from an old door. We often refuse to see the potential behind a lot of the things we throw away and this is great example showing what we’re missing out when doing so. If you want to find out more about this vintage door and how it became a beautiful outdoor bar, head over to findinghomefarms.
A cooler would sure be nice to have out on the patio and there’s a really cool way to have it built into a table or a bar to save some space and to also make it a lot faster and easier to have access to the ice. You can add this feature to your existing outdoor table or bar if you already have one and only a few simple modifications would be required. The design you see on remodelaholic is centered around a specific type of ice boxes so you might need to make a few adjustments if you’re using a different type of container.
Speaking of outdoor bars and coolers, a really cool and clever idea can also be to make use of an old wine barrel. You can cut off the top section and turn the remaining part into a beautiful barrel cooler which you can fill with ice and keep on your patio, next to a table or a small bar.
This eye-catching patio bar is actually a repurposed microwave cart. A fresh coat of paint made a huge difference and the bright metallic green is a nice fit for an open outdoor area, especially one surrounded by greenery. As you can see, the cart has casters, two storage shelves at the bottom, a drawer at the top and even a towel hanger on one side. Check out its transformation on 2beesinapod.
Here’s another really cool idea for a DIY cooler. This time the stand is a vintage wooden chair with a circular seat. The transformation is quite simple and straight-forward. If you have an old chair that you don’t mind repurposing go ahead and cut out a hole at the center of the seat, big enough to fit a bucket or a cooler inside without it going all the way through. If the chair doesn’t have a round seat this shouldn’t pose a problem since the shape is merely aesthetic. For more details, head over to ohmy-creative to check out the tutorial.
This bar cart has its own cooler but it keeps it hidden underneath the wooden top. It’s only this section of the top that has hinges and can be lifted up to reveal a hidden compartment, the other one being fixed. The bar cart also has open shelves for storage and copper fittings that serve as towel rods. You can find the plans for this project and all the details and instructions on jaimecostiglio.
The easiest way to build an outdoor bar is by using two wooden pallets. Make sure they have the same dimensions and also get some plywood, a drill, a few screws and some glue ready. The pallets need to be arranged vertically and they serve as a bar for bar. The plywood is placed on top and you can either add a countertop or use pavers for the top section, as shown on projects.truevalue. This would be a great weekend project.
This outdoor bar makes use of an old, non-working refrigerator and a bunch of wooden pallets. It looks lovely and we love the vintage vibe given by all the reclaimed wood. There are many different ways in which something like this can be customized based on course on the resources available so think of this project as a source of inspiration for your own unique creation. You can find out all the details on diyprojects.ideas2live4.
The post 28 Awesome DIY Bar Ideas For The Perfect Summer Project appeared first on Home Decorating Trends - Homedit.