Wine and Liquor Bar

For the past several years I have not had a functioning wine and liquor storage area. I resort to putting liquor up on a really high shelf in my kitchen and wine bottles in a wine rack that is pretty but takes up a lot of space.  Despite much shopping, I haven't been able to find a cabinet that works well for my storage needs.  I finally found a really beautiful wine bar at Four Hands furniture warehouse, but it was over $1,000.  I believe it was from India but, unfortunately, I didn't take a photograph of it.  With that inspiration, I decided to build my own wine bar, using only found/reclaimed wood.  

Below are my measurements and a rough sketch of my planned bar.  I based the design on a rectangular piece of slate that I wanted to use as the bar top.

I also created a spreadsheet with my planned dimensions that was cross-linked so that any changes in a particular dimension would correspondingly update any other dimension that would be impacted.  I tried to use Google Sketchup for the design but at the time I had Windows Vista which was not compatible and I was unable to save any of my designs.  However, that program is pretty simple to learn and I would recommend using it if you can.

The most effort for this project was in putting together/laminating all the planks to make the sides and back of the bar.  A side image of the laminated boards is below.  After I meticulously cut each piece to exactly the same length, during the laminating process (i.e., using wood glue between the boards to attach them to each other), the pieces inevitably shifted and did not remain exactly flat on the edges.  I ended up sawing off the ends after the lamination process to make them all even in the end.  I recommend not being so meticulous at first and planning to even the edges at the end. 

A picture of the final wine bar and inside the cabinet is below.  I used drawer pulls from old drawers I found in a junk pile and the carved panels in the front cabinet were disassembled from the wine rack I had before.  Only took about 10 weekends!