Bar Build

Nothing here came off a plan. The whole bar — front bar, back bar, hutch, cabinets, trim — was drawn from scratch in SketchUp first, which is where the dimensions and the cut list came from.

The model also settled the material split. Oak plywood from Lowe's for the bulk of it: carcasses, cabinet boxes, anything that ends up hidden behind a face. Solid red oak for everything that shows — the bar rail, the moulding and trim, the casing and facing, and the lumber in the bar top. That came S2S from Central Hardwoods in Dallas, along with the wenge for the bar top.

The front bar got framed first and wired before anything closed up. Romex ran through the studs for the receptacles, with steel nail plates over the bored holes so a screw couldn't find a wire later. Then it got clad in oak plywood.

The cabinets went in as plywood carcasses, face-framed in solid oak to match the rest of what shows on the front bar. Wine glass holders and proximity lighting came later.

The back bar base is a plywood carcass with extra depth built into the rear out of 2x4s — enough room to mount receptacle boxes and run Romex behind the cabinets rather than around them. Face frame in solid oak, with doors and drawers bought rather than built. Proximity lighting underneath.

The hutch was built as its own piece, sized to sit on the granite top of the back bar base. Three sections: narrow left and right bays carrying glass shelves for bottles and decor, and a middle section with a liquor shelf at the bottom and space above it to mount a TV.

The front verticals got fluted casing with plinth blocks at the base and rosette blocks at the top, and the top of the hutch was trimmed out heavily. Accent lighting went in above.

The plywood front got framed with solid red oak into three sections across the front and one on each end, with cove moulding run inside each frame - faux paneling, the panel being the plywood that was already there.

Fluted casing cut on the CNC wraps each corner, with oversized plinth blocks at the bottom and narrow rounded-over blocks at the top. Crown moulding went over the steel bar top supports once those were in.

The top started as a plywood sub-base, pocket-screwed together just to hold alignment until the hardwood went on. Three pieces of steel hold it. 2" angle welded at the corners with spans between ties it to the front bar. Half-inch rod bent into Ls, drilled down into the bar and let into the plywood, pins it in place. Along the front, under the bar rail, 3" flat bar carries the overhang.

The top itself is a lamination: a red oak 1x12, a strip of wenge about an inch and a half wide, and a red oak 1x6, biscuited for alignment, flattened with a belt sander, then glued to the plywood, which had its edge cut at an angle to meet the bar rail profile.

The drip rail is solid red oak, sealed with clear silicone. The top was stained and sprayed with General Finishes conversion varnish, a two-part catalyzed finish. LEDs run around the perimeter underneath.

The bottle shelf sits in the hutch's middle bay and is solid red oak throughout, with moulding on the front faces. Philips Hue strips run underneath, and the surfaces the bottles stand on are ¼" acrylic so the light comes up through them. Felt on the underside.

The sign was drawn in Illustrator, converted to G-code in VCarve Pro, and cut on the CNC I built, from two laminated pieces of 1x12 red oak, the same stock as the bar top.

Before cutting, the blank was painted black and covered in poly tape. The CNC cut through the tape into the wood, the carved pattern got sprayed gold, and peeling the tape left gold lettering on a black ground. A border, cut separately, gave it thickness and left room behind it for more Philips Hue. It hangs on the front of the bar from a French cleat.

Two stains. The bar top got Behr Kona, a darker brown, on the oak only — the wenge strip was left natural. Everything else got Behr American Chestnut.

Two topcoats. The top was sprayed with General Finishes conversion varnish; the rest of the bar got General Finishes Arm-R-Seal, oil-based, in satin.

The foot rail is bought, not built: 2" 316 stainless tube in matte black from tophardware.com - 22 feet across four lengths, two 90° elbows for the corners, a flush joiner where two lengths meet, domed end caps, and eleven combination brackets. $724 in parts. Dry-fit at home, mounted for good on site.

The front bar left the shop in one piece, top and all. I welded up lifting points for it, raised it on a 3-ton floor jack, and fixed furniture dollies underneath so they couldn't slip out. 2x4s triangulated it so nothing flexed on the road. A Harbor Freight winch on my stepdad's trailer pulled it up makeshift ramps.

On site it came back down the same ramps, went into position, got jacked up again, and the dollies and jack points came off. The back bar base and the hutch came on a second trip. Black granite went in on the front bar cabinets and the back bar base. Then the electrical got connected, the TV mounted, the fridges in, and the lighting tested. Done.