Creating a Kitchen Dining Room Combination by Installing a Bar

When it comes to what improvements to do on your home, livability should always trump property value. This doesn't mean to make some crazy improvement that will greatly devalue your home, but to make the upgrades that you want, not what will sell your house for a larger price. The funny thing to this is if you make your house more of a home, it brings more interest and a higher value to the buyers. One thing that can improve your home's comfort and livability is a larger and more open kitchen. One way to do this is to combine your kitchen and dining room. One good idea to do this is to install a bar between the two. This will increase counter space and still give the open and roomier appearance in your kitchen. Installing a bar can also give your home a little character and spice. These are a very nice addition to any home.

This may sound like a difficult thing to do, but in reality, knocking out a wall is a simple task. There are very few tools needed and takes very little knowledge to do. The only time you will run into problems, is if there are wiring or plumbing in the wall. A quick look at the blueprints or even a stud finder can determine this for you. Plumbing is easy to reroute, but when it comes to wiring, this can be a little more difficult. There are some options to hide the wiring and can even add a little flare and some extra outlets to your bar. Here is how you can do all of this.

The first thing that you will need to do is measure out the wall. If you are ready to take out the wall, you can start to mark it up with a pencil. Since the average bar is four and a half feet high, you will want to measure this distance off and mark the line. If you have one, a chalk rope can give you an accurate and straight line easily. You can measure the 54" on both sides of the wall, place your chalk rope on one side, run the line to the other and then pluck the rope. Once you have the bar level marked off, scan the wall real quick with a stud finder. You will want to make a pencil mark at every point where the stud finder finds something. If the studs are really close, there is likely some water lines or electrical wiring between the studs. IF there is only one section that is like this, there are some options you can incorporate into your bar so that you do not have to move the plumbing.

Once everything is marked off and you are sure that you want to punch through the wall, you can get started. You do not want to just start banging away with a sledge. Most homes have drywall. This makes things even easier. All you have to do is take a box cutter along the four and half foot line. The box knife should easily cut through the drywall. You can then run the knife along the abutting wall. If you cut along each of the studs, you can take the drywall off, piece by piece. This makes it much cleaner and easier to remove the drywall. You can then take the nailed on drywall from the studs. Now you should have drywall on the bottom of the wall, and a skeleton of studs on the top portion.

The next thing that you want to do is determine if you have any structural studs. If the studs are four by fours instead of the normal two by fours, they may be structurally necessary and you will need to incorporate them into the design. If you cut them out, you may start to see your ceiling sag. This can be a very bad thing, especially if you have an upper floor or attic. If none of the studs are structural, you can cut them all out, although, to keep your ceiling looking nice and to add some lines to your bar, you may want to keep the stud on the end of your bar in tact. You can also replace it with a nice scrolled piece of wood or something a little more decorative. If there are some structural studs, you can replace all of these with a decorative post no matter where they fall along your bar.

The next thing you will need to do is create the counter for the bar. This may require you to extend the wall into the dining room side so that you can get a nice, wide counter. This will also give you a whole new set of cupboards under the bar. If the plumbing runs near there, you can also install a sink and make a wet bar. Kegerators and a small fridge or wine cabinet can be nice additions to this space as well. This is completely up to you. If you just desire a narrow counter for plants, knickknacks or passing dishes to the dining room, you can just tack it onto the top of the remaining wall. No matter which counter top you want to go with, you can now go get it. To help distribute the weight and hide the nails or screws. You may want to place a piece of ¼ - ½" plywood on top. You can nail this directly to the studs for a sturdy platform. Now you can attach the counter from the bottom so that no one ever sees the nails or screws. You can even create a spot on the bottom of the counter where the plywood fits inside of it. This will completely hide the plywood. After you have the anchor decided on, you can get to work on the counter.

The counter top can vary. You can get stone or marble, tile or vinyl, solid wood or planked. There are so many options, that I can not possibly go through all of them. You can tour the internet, kitchen stores, and home improvement stores to get ideas on what would be perfect for you. This will give you several options and you can find what you can truly call your own. Each of these has a different anchoring method and different design possibilities. You have to decide on this for yourself.

That is really all there is to this project. It will take you a day or two, but it is rather simple. You can add planters, spice racks, or cupboards to this project and really brighten up this area. You can also nearly double your kitchen space. If you install a double sided cupboard, you can store your dishes underneath and have access from both sides. One tip to keep in mind is that you should keep some of the bigger chinks of drywall. You can use these to plug the hole in the ceiling. Then use some spackle to keep it in place. This will make it cheaper to patch the ceiling when you are done.