How to Build a Home Bar With Kitchen Cabinets

10 Great Home Bars

Top designers comment on creating sleek and stylish in-home entertainment hubs

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  Photo: Michael Moran

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  "We try to integrate any part of a project, like a bar, so that the sum is greater than the individual components," says Lee F. Mindel, of Shelton, Mindel & Associates. "Spaces should be seamlessly integrated, not a string of amenities that distract from the overall essence of a time and place." Mindel and his partner Peter L. Shelton designed a bar in a family's Manhattan apartment, which they restored and renovated. December 2007

• Photo: Scott Frances

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  "When we were designing Jen's bar, I remember our project manager, Phill Mills, saying, 'The blender should be in a cabinet that can be closed while it operates,' " designer Stephen Shadley says of working on Jennifer Aniston's Beverly Hills home. "I thought it was an odd request, but now I realize how annoying that sound can be during a party." March 2010

• Photo: David Matheson

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  George Harrison, the Beatles' lead guitarist who died in 2001, and his wife, Olivia, built an isolated sanctuary on Australia's Hamilton Island in 1987. Sydney-based Pamela Mathieson Croci, working with Angus Leendertz, designed the interiors, using pieces from both Australia and England. Bamboo—"a favorite material," says Olivia Harrison—clads the bar in the dining area, which is decorated with art from New Guinea. August 2007

• Photo: Erhard Pfeiffer

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  Designer Michael Lee renovated a 68-foot steel-hulled yacht he bought in 2004 and named it Dakota, after the Manhattan apartment building. Lee lives in Malibu, California, but uses the boat, moored in Marina del Rey, as his "in-town house" during the week. The previous owner had enclosed the aft deck, but "the pilot house was never opened up," says Lee, who installed a wet bar where the captain's bench used to be. "Basically, editing and making everything feel nonclaustrophobic was the main focus." September 2007

• Photo: Fred Lyon

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  Prominent among the legendary decorators of the 20th century is Frances Adler Elkins (1888-1953). For the bar in the 1937 Zellerbach house in San Francisco, Elkins chose neutral colors and a Jean-Michel Frank low table. April 2005

• Photo: Kim Sargent

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  Michael J. Abbott and S. Marc Thee, of Marc-Michaels Interior Design, opted for a primarily Venetian style for the interior of the lakeside house they shared in Winter Park, Florida. The library functions as an office, a media center, a wine cellar and a bar. September 2001

• Photo: Robert Reck

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  The compound that architect Bill Tull designed for the late R. Michael Kammerer, Jr., in Santa Fe reflects the owner's love of southwestern art and architecture. The cantina was inspired by a 300-year-old Spanish cowboy bar and was dubbed "La Tinaja de Miguel, or Michael's Watering Hole," says Kammerer. June 2008

• Photo: Paul Warchol

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  "In designing a residential bar," says interior designer Charles Allem, "I like to incorporate sophisticated and unique elements like semiprecious stones and specialty metals. I currently have a bar in production made out of angel jasper, bronze and backlit glass that is going to make quite a statement. The key is in the proportions. It should be like a jewelry box, not a stone quarry." For the bar of a Manhattan penthouse, Allem chose wide-plank walnut floors, walls covered in leather and a circa 1940 low table with a beveled-mirror top and base. April 2007

• Photo: Durston Saylor

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  "Bars are my favorites! I almost always include an antique bar in a home," says designer Penny Drue Baird. "When I was growing up, my parents had one, and it made infinite sense. Besides being practical, a bar gives architectural weight to a room as well as a focal point. Often one can style a wonderful backdrop for the bar that provides storage but is also intrinsically attractive." In the combined library and bar of a 12,000-square-foot Shingle Style house in Quogue, New York, Baird used back-to-back sofas to differentiate the spaces and chose a 1930s French bar in mahogany and chrome. "The vendor, in Paris, coordinated his barstools, which are new, with the bar." April 2010

• Photo: Robert McLeod

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  Combining his distinctive minimalist style with the work of designers and artists, architect Tadao Ando created an unusual guesthouse and gallery space in Tokyo for Takeo Obayashi. For the bar, designer Tokujin Yoshioka made a table and bench out of slabs of optical glass. The LED piece on the wall is by Tatsuo Miyajima. January 2008

How to Build a Home Bar With Kitchen Cabinets

Source: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/home-bars-slideshow

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