For most of us caffeine is a daily necessity.
As we drag ourselves out of bed each morning and attempt to wake up and get ready for the day… our first thought is… caffeine!! And more importantly COFFEE! How many of us are guilty of a morning coffee run which we all know we could save lots of time and money by making these daily drinks at home? Why not just create a coffee bar in your own home!
I promise this “how to” is not to lecture you on spending $5 on coffee each morning. I know, there is a time and place for it in all of our lives. This is a “how to” create your very own luxury coffee station… anywhere. In typical Isle Home form and fashion, I have rounded up some fabulous inspiration photos to get the design juices flowing:
The Inspiration:
The beauty of a coffee bar…
What is so great about creating a coffee bar in your home, is that you can do it anywhere. You can carve out a little nook of space in any room to accomplish this design space. Whether you are looking for a permanent dedicated bar in your home, or you just want to utilize what you already have, it’s easy to convert any space.
How I did it.
Disclaimer: I am not the coffee drinker in the house! BUT, I do require caffeine. So I’ll show you how I converted two different spaces in my own home, in one day, into coffee bar heaven. My husband is big on coffee and when we built our house I knew we would want a dedicated drink station.
The built in bar.
When planning our kitchen, I knew I wanted a bar area, but I didn’t want it to be an overwhelming space in our house. Because I am very big on symmetry I wanted to make sure our u-shaped kitchen was very symmetrical. On one side, we opted for a separate refrigerator & freezer with a 4′ double pocket door in the middle. On the other, we had our double wall oven, a 4′ cased opening and a 36″ open area that would work perfectly for our bar area.
Below was one of my favorite inspiration photos, it utilized a small space but still had a very elegant look that would tie into the rest of the home very nicely.
Originally we toyed around with the idea of a bar sink, but the reality is we really didn’t need one, nor did we have the extra space. But, I knew we wanted a beverage center in our house for both entertaining and everyday use.
*Note: a beverage center is a cross between a wine cooler and an undercounter refrigerator, it allows for regular drink storage and also has a wine rack for several bottles.Â
A pretty storage solution:
The built-in bar area offers us 3 different storage solutions.
- The upper glass cabinets provide storage for our wine and specialty glass wares, including coffee cups.
- The cabinet & beverage storage below is great for sodas, beer, wine, and drinks for the kiddos that they can reach easily.
- The countertop is perfect for our Kuerig coffee maker that is probably the most used kitchen appliance in our house!
The coffee bar conversion:
So, truth be told, this space was a little boring before I decided to do this project. Yes, the Kuerig was there and a little turnstyle K-cup holder that left little to be desired on the design front. So I was definitely up for the up-fit of this space.
After a trip to my local HomeGoods store, I came home with all the makings for a coffee bar conversion. A gold, 3 tiered makeup organizer proved to be a perfect solution for K-cup storage. A decorative wooden tray (you can read about my love of trays here), another bathroom storage container for our sweetener of choice, a green plant, some pretty blue coffee cups later, and voila, a pretty little coffee bar.
The simple coffee bar:
Now to flip the script a little, for the 2nd coffee bar space in our home, I decided to use an existing bookshelf in our bedroom. Of course, what makes more sense than rolling out of bed into the arms of a fresh cup of coffee?! When we were planning our house, I knew that I wanted to have a built in for our television like the inspiration photo below.
With our limited wall space it was a perfect fit and we found a television that would fit just right. Well, fast forward a year and a half later and I still had not styled the bookshelves… much to my husband’s dismay!! Until today…
I cleared off all the miscellaneous junk that had accumulated there and started from scratch. Again, as part of my HomeGoods run today, I scored some great blue coffee cups and just repurposed some glass jars that I had lying around. With the addition of a couple old books, a storage box, a photo, and some creative arranging, a brand new coffee bar was born.
*Note: we did already have the Kuerigs so it made for a very inexpensive update.Â
Wrapping it up.
I had been noodling this coffee bar idea for a long time and truthfully I had hit a designer block with the bookshelves in my bedroom, so this project was a little daunting. However, once I made the mental commitment to do it today, it was surprisingly simple. And aside from the coffee cups and a couple of the containers, I had everything else in the house already.
You can do it too!
I bet if you start looking around your home, you have an old dresser or armoire that would be a perfect fit for a little coffee maker and some morning pep in your step. Just think, if a hotel room can create a coffee station, with a single serve coffee pot and a paper cup… Imagine what you could do with your own space!