Basement Bar

John and I don't do much rework to the interior of our house these days. I'm not saying there isn't stuff we want to do, we just spend the money and time on other things.
We did decide that our bar needed some touches to help with entertaining though, so John busted out his tool belt.

John and I drink alcohol from time to time. I know, crazy! Has everyone thoroughly gasped and shaken their heads in disgust,can we move on now? Ahem, okay, so John and I drink alcohol, as do some of our friends and when we have them over it was always slightly embarrassing to pull our stash out from under the kitchen sink. Since our family room is the comfiest room in the house and already had the bar layout we decided to use some wall real estate to relieve our embarrassment.

Here is the before shot, this is an old picture as we've had fish in the tank for a few years now, but not much else had changed:

And here is the after:

The shelves are all different lengths and thicknesses depending on what was going to be stored on them and John made them out of alder to match the cabinets.

 All the shelves have the same decorative profile, this one has holes drilled in it to store wine stoppers. Looks like I need to start collecting.

Of course once John had all the shelves made I had to throw a kink into his plans. He was showing me what they'd look like on the wall and I was thinking how dark they made the wall look with the the harsh shadows they cast so I suggested that we put LED lights under each shelf. Of course they couldn't be battery operated and I didn't want wire showing so if we really wanted it then John would have to cut into the wall to wire the lights.
I kept telling him that we didn't have to do it, but he kept saying that I was right and it would look better with them.

We bought all the needed supplies off Amazon. John had worked with LED lighting because of his job before so he knew what was needed. The LED light strip came on a 16 foot roll that you can cut every three lights.

You then have to solder wire onto the strip, which was probably the most challenging part, but once John got a good soldering iron it went much smoother.
LEDs also have to be converted into a lower power wattage so we bought an adapter and John rigged it up into what we needed.
The light switch for the LEDs was a little pricey as far as switches go, but I think it was worth it.

The switch is about the size of a standard face plate and makes the LEDs dimmable. The faceplate is glass and we dropped it before it was ever installed, so it's cracked. We'll have to replace it at some point in the future.

The lighting adding about another month onto the project only because John was helping others with their wood needs and our project got put in the back burner.
So without further ado, here is the bar with the LED lights on:

This picture just does not do it justice! I need a new camera so very badly, but just take my word for it. I'm staring at the wall right now and it's beautiful. The LEDs do beautiful things to the glasses making them sparkle and the bar looks so warm and inviting.

Last but not least, you're probably wondering what these are:

 These are beer taps for the kegerator John has installed in the guest room closet behind the bar.

John made the faceplate for the taps out of alder and the decorative profile is what inspired the shelves. A couple of his co-workers turned the handles for him and carved the figurines. John gave the carver free reign to what the figurines were and even though they're not my first choice, they're still conversation starters.

I do plan on buying some art for the bar from Etsy artist GuerdrumArt that our friends found for us.

Woodland creatures relaxing in beer?! How could I not buy a couple of these cuties? I just have to figure out how I want to hang them since I don't want frames.

Well that's all on the bar so far. We do have plans to increase storage of the actual liquor, but that will come at a later date.