Adding a Built-In Wet Bar to Your Dining Room

Adding a wet bar to your home not only creates a nice feature for entertaining, but it can also increase the value of your home. Wet bars can be added in many different rooms of the home, but adding one to the dining room can be very convenient, especially when entertaining.

Deciding on the Size of the Wet Bar

Wet bars can be simply for preparing drinks, or they can have more extensive functionality, depending on the types of features you add. A typical wet bar will include a small sink, as well as a small refrigerator for keeping items cold, A storage area is also handy to hold glasses and drink mixes, and other types of necessities. Countertop area is also important so that you have an area to prepare drinks and snacks. If you are building a wet bar in your dining room, you will be able to find plans for just about any size. Before choosing a plan, take a good look at your dining room area, and assess not only the most convenient area for building the wet bar, but also how much space you can devote to it. Because a wet bar includes plumbing, you will want to choose the location carefully, as it will involve re-plumbing later if you wish to move it. When deciding on a size, make sure it is large enough to serve the purposes you have in mind, without taking away excessive amounts of floor space from the dining room area. In some cases, you can use the same floor space that you previously used for other dining room furniture, such as replacing a hutch furniture unit with a built-in wet bar, since you can install shelves over the wet bar to hold some of the items previously housed in the hutch.

Photo credit to cletch.

Deciding on the Shape of the Wet Bar

Although most people adding a wet bar to the dining room will select a straight bar along the wall, if the dining room is large enough, you could also utilize an L-shaped bar in one corner of the room. This would add additional space and functionality, while using the corner space of the room effectively.

Building the Wet Bar

In order to build a wet bar, you will first need a set of plans, which you can either purchase or draw up yourself if you have the design skills to do so. If you are not comfortable doing the plumbing work yourself, you should hire a professional for that part of the project. There are many different building materials to choose from, including stainless steel, laminates, wood, tile and marble. When selecting the materials, keep in mind the overall styling in your dining room. If you have a traditionally styled dining room with mahogany furniture and painted wood wall art, fine wood cabinetry would probably look best. If you have a modern dining room, sleek stainless steel details would complement your furniture and metal artwork with contemporary flair. When choosing a countertop material, select on that is durable and waterproof, to make it easy to keep clean. Although some wet bars are designed to provide seating options, this is generally not the case when designing one for the dining room area. Keeping the wet bar area small and flat against the wall or corner is usually the best design choice for a dining room area.