Outdoor Patio Bar Designs
Sunday, August 01, 2010

I am totally a measure twice, cut once guy, so in order to build my poolside bar, I was going to need some outdoor patio bar designs.  Let me clarify that a little bit, I would like to be a measure twice cut once guy and that’s totally the goal.  But things always pop up or interrupt me or somehow make my projects go less than smoothly.  So in reality, I wind up measuring and cutting as many times as it takes to get the job done and I’m fine with that. 

That being said, I always start my projects with the best intentions and that means having some good plans to work from.  A great way to get ideas is to do an image search for Outdoor Patio Bar Designs in Google.  There are people out there with some awesome outdoor bars. The problem is that they almost definitely paid an awesome amount of money for them too.  Since I’m looking for more of a handy man special, I checked out the HGTV, DIYNetwork, Home Depot & Lowes websites.  I needed to find a project that I could do by myself.  When you watch those design makeover shows, they start from zero and create a backyard oasis in 30 minutes. Conveniently off screen is the crew that took a few days to make it happen.

I found what I was looking for at the Lowes Creative Ideas site.  It’s called the Watch and Work Outdoor Kitchen Island and with a few modifications it will become my outdoor patio bar design. 

Outdoor Patio Bar under construction

The first modification is to make it taller.  Average bar height is usually between 41 and 43 inches.  Since this is an outdoor kitchen island, it was too low.  And since the space of my patio could handle a larger structure, I also decided to almost double the length.  What good is a bar if only a few people can enjoy it at a time.  The next change I made to the design was to beef up the slats.  The plans call for 1x6 lumber but I decided to go with deck planking (5/4”) instead. 

There won’t be any running water in this bar and if I need to power the mini fridge that I plan on putting in it, I’ll have to run an extension cord.  Like I mentioned before, my budget isn’t in the awesome category but I think that this bar will do just fine. 

With those changes made to the design and the gung-ho attitude that I always have at the beginning of my projects I was ready to go. 

Posted by Anthony 6:07 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Outdoor Patio Bar

Outdoor Patio Bar
Saturday, July 17, 2010

We're building a bar!  I've already told some of our friends and rightfully so, the news is almost as significant as announcing that you're having a baby.  Well, maybe not that important but it's up there.  With those baby years behind us and the kids are more able to run around and be kids with a lot less supervision, my wife are actually getting our social life back.  The days of bars and clubs are also behind us but we've discovered another stage of adulthood that isn't too well documented.  It's when grade school parents start having get togethers.  The kids play together while the parents have a few cold ones and have some fun.  And what better way to have some fun than to hang out by the pool at my outdoor patio bar.

What set this off was charity dinner for our grade school.  With a few raffle tickets in hand, I surveyed the room full of prizes and decided that the BeerTender Home Beer-Tap System was what I wanted.  You know it's one of those taps that you put a mini Heinken keg into.  I dunked my raffle ticket into my dirty martini to make it feel different than the rest of the tickets in the basket (I've heard that this works pretty well but never tried it before) and hoped for the best.  I almost fell out of my chair when they called our name as the winner.

A friend of ours has a great indoor bar.  It's got the mirrors, the glass racks the sink, the fridge, really it's a full-scale home bar with all the fixings.  It makes for an awesome party and gives everyone a place to hang out besides the kitchen.  We've got some other friends who I hear have great outdoor patio bars but I haven't seen any of them yet.  I just decided that it's time for a nice outdoor bar in my backyard.

When I saw this outdoor kitchen project in my Lowes Weekend Project email, I knew that I found my home bar.  I don't have the cash on hand to hire workers to build it for me so I'll have to do with a handyman special.  With a few changes to the Lowes project like doubling the length of it to 10 feet and making it a little taller so that we can buy taller bar stools, we'd be set.  Really this design is for an outdoor kitchen counter but I can easily modify it into a bar.  Things like running water and electricity will have to wait for another year.  Unfortunately, I’m not made of money.

Right now I'm working on two matching coffee tables to share the pool deck with the bar (and also gaining some valuable building experience in the process) but the construction on my custom outdoor patio bar should begin soon. 

Posted by Anthony 7:21 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Outdoor Patio Bar