Where people start
- The drinks live in three different cupboards and the glasses live in a fourth.
- You have an alcove or an under-stairs void that is doing nothing useful.
- You want it to look like a bar in the evening and not like a bar at breakfast.
- You are not sure whether you need plumbing, and you do not want to find out late.
Where they end up
- Bottles, glassware and a wine fridge in one place, at the right heights.
- Backlit shelving and an antique mirror back, so it looks like something after dark.
- A counter at a height you can actually work at rather than a shelf you lean on.
- Doors or a shutter, if you want the whole thing to disappear.
How the job runs
Step by step, and nothing owed until step three.
- 01
Finding the space
Arshdeep looks at the alcoves, the under-stairs void and the dead end of the dining room and tells you which will take a bar and which will take a cupboard pretending to be one.
- 02
Deciding what goes in it
Wine fridge or not, sink or not, how many bottles standing and how many lying down, whether glassware hangs or stands. A sink means plumbing and drainage, and that is the decision that changes the price most.
- 03
Making and fitting
Cabinetry, counter, mirror back and shelving made to size, then fitted, wired for lighting and the fridge, and finished.
What we work with
- Dark stained oak, walnut and painted cabinetry
- Antique, bronze and smoked mirror splashbacks
- Backlit stone splashbacks and counters
- Fluted and reeded counter fronts
- Brass-framed glass shelving with backlighting
- Quartz, timber and brass counter surfaces
- Integrated wine and drinks fridges
The guarantee
12 months on the joinery and the fitting. Fridges carry their own manufacturer warranty.
Insurance
Fully covered by public liability insurance.
Three places a bar fits
An alcove. Depth is usually 300mm to 400mm, which is enough for bottles and glasses but not for a fridge unless the alcove is deep. Cheapest and quickest.
Under the stairs. Awkward for almost everything else and ideal for this, because the height you lose at one end is height a bar does not need.
An under-stairs bar, worked through
The bar in the second photograph sits in the space under a staircase. The trick is to put each thing where the ceiling suits it. The tall glass cabinet goes at the high end, because stemmed glasses and decanters need the height. The bottles go on two floating shelves under the slope, where a bottle is about the tallest thing that fits anyway. Below the counter there is a full run of cupboards, so the mixers, the spare bottles and the clutter all have somewhere out of sight.
Lighting does most of the work. A strip under each shelf lights the bottles from below, and a vertical strip inside the glass cabinet catches the cut glass. On a dimmer, the space reads as a bar in the evening and as a dark, tidy cupboard run during the day.
None of it needs plumbing. The whole job is cabinetry, two shelves and a socket for the lighting, which is why an under-stairs bar is one of the cheaper ways to get one.
The end of a dining room. Takes the most space and gives the most back, especially if it replaces a sideboard that was doing half the job.
Where the money goes
Not the cabinetry. It is the mirror back, the lit glass shelving and the fridge that move the number. A painted alcove bar with timber shelves and a warm strip light is a fraction of the cost and does most of the job.
Common questions
Asked often enough to answer here.
How much does a home bar cost?
An alcove bar with shelving, a counter and lighting usually runs £1,200 to £3,000. Add a wine fridge, a mirror back and a fluted counter front and it lands nearer £3,000 to £5,000. A sink and plumbing adds meaningfully on top.
Do I need plumbing?
Only if you want a sink, and most home bars do not have one. Without a sink the whole job is joinery and a socket, which keeps it simple and much cheaper.
Can you build one under the stairs?
It is one of the best uses of that space. The rake of the staircase gives you a natural bottle display at the tall end and low storage at the short end. See the under-stairs storage page as well.
Can it be hidden when we are not using it?
Yes. Bi-fold or pocket doors close the whole thing away, which matters if the bar is in a dining room or a hallway that has to look calm most of the time.
What counter height should it be?
Standing bars work at about 1,050mm to 1,150mm, which is higher than a kitchen worktop. If you want stools at it, that height decides which stools fit, so it is worth settling early.
Will the lighting be too bright?
It should be on a dimmer, always. Backlit shelving at full brightness looks like a shop display. At twenty per cent it looks like a bar.
The next step