Where Can I Get The Best Inspiration For A Home Bar

Building a home bar can be a daunting project, it can be hard to know where to start. Also it is hard sometimes to visualize how your bar will look. You may find yourself asking the question where can I get the best inspiration for a home bar?

In this article I will cover the basic bar dimensions as well as the best places to find ideas and inspiration for your own home bar.

Where Can I Get The Best Inspiration For A Home Bar?

The internet has made it easy to get inspiration for any project, and a home bar is no different. A simple search can produce plenty of images of bars you can emulate. However images do not always tell the whole story. To get more details and materials used, video is the best way to find real ideas and inspiration for a home bar.

While Pinterest is a great place for images what is the best place for video’s? It has to be Youtube, and there are loads of them.

What Are The Basic Bar Dimensions?

Building a bar from scratch means you get to decide what size and shape you make your bar. You don’t have to adhere to any standard dimensions. However there are standard sizes for a reason, because they work.

Having said that, there is room for slight differences in the standard. Knowing the standard dimensions means you can use them as a guide. Change them only if your space requires you to do so, just get as close to them as possible.

What Is The Standard Bar Length?

There is no actual standard bar length, a bar can be as long as you want it to be. I personally wouldn’t want a bar shorter than 1m (3.28ft), but going longer has no limits.

If you are planning on sitting at the bar, then there are a few standard measurements to think of. The space between bar stools should be 60cm (2ft), so a 1.8m (6ft) bar could accommodate three stools. This will give ample room for guests to move around the stools and sit with ease.

What Is The Standard Bar Height?

The standard height for a bar seems to be 106cm (42 inches) from floor to the top of the counter. This will allow a standard size bar stool between 66cm (26 inches) and 81cm (32 inches) to work comfortably.

In most cases there is no reason not to stick to the standard height of a bar. However it is your bar so the height can be adjusted to your own perfect height if need be.

What Is The Standard Bar Top Depth?

A standard bar top depth can range from 40cm (16 inches) to 60cm (23 inches). However this will all depend on the room you have available and whether you want a front of bar overhang.

The front of bar overhang is for you and your guests to have a comfortable range of leg room when sitting directly at the bar. A typical overhang range is between 20cm (8 inches) and 30cm (12 inches).

This is not a necessity as some bars do not have a front overhang, so this is a personal choice or governed by the space available.

What Is The Standard Space Behind A Bar?

Allowing 91cm (36 inches) between the bar and the back wall is a standard measurement. This will give you and anybody else a good working space.

Again this may have to change according to space. A good tip is to stack some boxes to emulate the bar before you build it. These can easily be moved to get the right space for you.

Do bear in mind you may want a back cabinet or shelves on the back wall. So take these in to account before you build the bar.

Like I said while these are the standard measurements, they may have to change depending on your situation, Just use them as a guide and adjust where needed.

Now for some fun stuff.

Where Can I Get The Best Inspiration For A Home Bar?

I have hand picked some good videos to help with ideas and inspiration for your home bar. It is a Great way to get a good feel for building a home bar.

I have included indoor bars as well as outside bars.

Pub Shed Garden Bar Tour

A tour of someone’s bar can not only give us inspiration, but also give us an idea of how everything fits in. This video by Life Of John shows the shed he converted into a bar.

It includes the outside and inside seating area, the bar and shed measurements as well as the different materials used for construction.

John as many have, has used pallets as part of the bar construction. He also uses scaffold boards too, which I hadn’t thought of before, a great tip. It’s a great bar shed conversion.

I am sure you would agree, John’s bar is a triumph. He has made some great use of pallets and scaffold boards to create a really good garden bar.

How To Build A DIY Bar

This video comes from Starter Builds and goes through the whole process of building a home bar. It incorporates 4×4 timber, 2×4 timber and some fence boards.

A good construction design that can be for indoor or outdoor use. Also the build is easy to follow and copy for your own bar.

A good size bar using minimal materials, and effort. The casters are an interesting addition, ideal for making the bar more mobile.

DIY Budget Bar Build

This third video comes from Lutch24 and shows another easy design that will not break the bank. It is constructed with the materials costing no more that $100.

The tongue and groove boards are a great lightweight way of filling in the frame. It actually ends up looking a pretty refined bar with a great finish.

Although a good looking bar with a nice finish, it is pretty basic and could do with some shelving underneath. But this could easily be added, however it will take the build cost up a little.

Building A Home Bar

Another home bar that is fairly cheap to build. It is a garden bar with a small roof and is constructed of mainly pallets. Most of which are full pallets, with a few cut down in size.

It gives an idea of what can be achieved with the most basic of materials. The basic design is a good one, with plenty of scope to refine it more.

The finished bar looks pretty good and the addition of mirrors help give it a sense of more space. Beer taps also give this bar a more professional look, and the work.

How I built My Pub Shed

Instead of converting a shed into a bar, this video shows building a shed from scratch with the idea in mind for a bar. It goes through the whole process from the ground work to the finished shed.

Then a two tier bar is built along with a back bar and shelves. A very well insulated shed that will make it possible to use all year round.

Obviously this o pub shed probably cost a lot more than the others I have shared. The cost of the shed build is on top of the bar and interior.

However it does show what can be achieved and gives more options when building it from the ground up.

Final Thoughts

I hope my choice of videos have given an insight to what is possible when it comes to building a home bar. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune and many times it is possible to reuse old materials.

Pallets are a great material to use and will not cost to much, just as scaffold boards. A good sanding of these materials will give a nice finish to even the roughest of materials.

If you decide to build a shed bar from scratch, then make sure you find out the planning rules in your area. Also it is best to make sure you stick within these rules to avoid problems down the line. Any electrics and/or plumbing should be handled by professionals.

However big your home bar project is, I hope you have got some good ideas and inspiration from this collection of videos. But if you still need more, then just keep searching as there are plenty to watch.

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