It’s 5 o’clock Somewhere:The Home Bar Reimagined
The last couple of years have inspired many new trends in home design. Incorporating dedicated bar spaces has gained huge popularity with people spending more of their time at home. Once thought of as a luxury, integrating home wine bars, coffee bars and refreshment bars has elevated the stay-at-home trend. In the past, having a bar was a nice upgrade to a great room or dining room space. Today we are designing bar spaces into bonus rooms, multi-gen quarters, home offices and bedrooms to accommodate the growing needs of the modern home and family.
The home bar became popular in the 1950s and 1960s as families purchased post-war homes in new suburbs that lacked dining and entertainment choices. A dedicated space for liquor, spirits, and wine allowed people to enjoy a leisurely drink and host friends at home, often as supper-club type affairs requiring a dress code. If episodes of “Mad Men” come to mind, you’re on the right track.
Today’s home bars are less formal but more stylish, often bespoke-style spaces with custom cabinets, distinctive backsplashes, and plenty of space for beverages, glassware, and bar tools. Our recent work integrates both wet or dry bars in a variety of locations and layouts to show prospective homebuyers how to create opportunities for relaxing and imbibing at home.
The classic wet bar
A wet bar includes a sink and faucet so the host doesn’t have to travel back and forth from the kitchen to the party. It also makes for easier and more convenient clean-up. A niche with built-ins next to a fireplace can be a cozy spot, like this welcoming setup in the living room at the Plan 3 model home at Verlaine. Plenty of closed-door cabinet space stores spirits, mixers, and an assortment of glassware and ample open shelving provides the opportunity for display items. For a more vertical design, Plan 2 at VU takes on a wine bar theme with two full-height wine coolers flanking built-in cabinetry and shelving. Counter height tables and chairs keep things casual, while a chocolate tiled backsplash and under-counter lighting add touches of luxury and drama.
Casual dry bars
If a wet bar isn’t possible, or if its location is close enough to the kitchen, a dry bar is a simplified alternative. At Lyric’s Plan 2, we transformed the often underutilized area near a staircase into a well-appointed dry bar to serve the homeowner on a daily basis and warmly greet their guests upon arrival. An asymmetrical design makes the most of this unique space, with white, flat panel cabinets and a modern wood shelf to complement the interior’s color palette. To save precious kitchen real estate in Plan 3 at Verlaine, we created a dry bar area in an adjacent nook. Cabinets match the kitchen for continuity, and a full height marble slab backsplash is a striking reflective backdrop for sparkling glassware.
Creative home bar spaces
What’s more luxurious than a refreshment bar in a bedroom? We designed the primary suite at Riverstone Plan 4 as the ultimate hotel-feel retreat. This refreshment bar serves a dual purpose for brewing coffee in the morning and pouring a relaxing drink or glass of wine at the end of the day. An undercounter refrigerator is a more versatile alternative to a specialized wine fridge at a dual-purpose bar, so that bottled water, soft drinks or cream for coffee can be kept chilled in addition to wine. A large floorplan isn’t necessarily required for a home bar. Where there’s wall space, there’s a way. That’s been our motto, especially when it comes to creating a home bar like the one at Vu Plan 5. This niche has style in spades, with a rich marble slab counter to decant and serve, flat-panel textured cabinets for storage, and floating shelves for displaying barware and spirits.
Now more than ever, buyers appreciate guidance and demonstration on how to get the most out of their new homes and enhance their lifestyle. From home bars and gyms to offices and multi-purpose rooms, we help clients create spaces that help buyers envision their lifestyle possibilities. To see more of our recent work, please visit our design portfolio page or contact us for more information.
