The Family Room Bar and the "Wine Cellar"

My FANTASTIC s-i-l, Renee at Modus Operandi Designs and the Southernly Challenged featured our Family Room Bar Remodel on her blog.

Yay! How fun is that?

It made me really want to share the unfinished space we were able to claim from Cluttered Storage to "Wine Room"/Full Kitchen.

I also must add that much of what we have redone in the house is inspired by Renee and her design aesthetic, which is impeccable. She provides much-needed input, but also helps us feel that, ultimately, we have the freedom to choose what WE like (within reason (hah!) and budget (boo!)).

Before we redid the bar, the far wall stopped and there was a small, unfinished space behind it. After we had decided to use the space for more bar, we had the option to tear out the wall completely or do a pass through. Doing the pass through was cheaper, easier, and I think, much cooler.



This is the "wine room" side. We have decorative wine storage, stemware storage, cabinetry and an open shelf for Ryan's fancy whiskys. We tiled the back with a stacked stone and it was AMAZINGLY easy to do.


And this is the side with the range. I like that it's tucked around the corner so you can't see it unless you go looking for it, plus, the entire bar is small enough that it's still super functional. The kids have already put it to good use making frozen pizzas, cookies and Bagel Bites. We used the same glass tile behind the oven that we used for the bar-proper, but installed it vertically instead of horizontally.

We chose a different door style in these cabinets than for the rest of the cabinets, and chose to paint them very-slightly-distressed black. I was a bit concerned about it being too dark in the little room, but it's not a problem. And Ryan installed a decorative undermount light that shines on the stacked stone on the wine side...looks really cool at night.

I like that it's "hidden"-but not hidden and still very accessible. I also think by Ryan doing that arch in the opening made a huge difference in the overall look. That was one of those things that took us awhile to figure out. First, that we WERE going to do it and then second, HOW we were going to do it.

Renee, I can't wait for you all to test it out!