What to Do with Your Home Bar

I just recently walked into a retired couple's home that they had bought in a retirement community. The home was a modular with what they call two Florida rooms. They sit in the front one, but the husband has an idea that he would like to turn his other Florida room into a bar.

He asked me a lot of questions about how he could go about getting certain things done. So, I thought I'd share the information because others might have the same questions. These are the answers I gave him for setting up a bar in his home.

First of all, the house came with an actual bar and two bar stools. It is useful, but it needs some modifications. We'll come back to that a little later. But for now, at least you know where we started.

The first thing I thought he needed was some bar lights and signs. He has large windows along one entire side and then two large windows on either side of the door in the front. At night, bar lights would shine throughout the place and give ambiance to visitors outside. Bar signs and mirrors finish the look of a bar. No bar should be without at least a beer sign and a beer light.

Then, we talked about putting a poker table in the middle of the room. A poker table adds so much authenticity to a home bar. If you find the right kind of poker table, it can turn into a regular table by day and a full fledged casino by night. A deck of cards, cigars and a round of beers is what a home bar is all about.

The final item we discussed was how to get beer in the bar. You might think that's a funny question. But, the fact is that there literally are hundreds of options. We needed to discuss each one and get a feel for which option would be better.

The first option we discussed was the kegerator. A kegerator will hold your beer keg and keep it cold while having a beer tap on the top for smooth pouring. They work great in about any situation. But, we still needed to explore other options.

The next option we discussed was to simply put a small refrigerator behind the bar. That would make it easier because to stock the bar would only take a trip to the store for a few cases of beer.

But, I happened to notice that he had a thin wall behind the bar. There was a storage facility in the backroom and that gave me a great idea. Put the keg cooler behind the wall and run a line through it for the beer tap. The beer tap can be place on the wall and you have smooth flowing beer from the beer keg. He went for that idea.

Any room can be made into a bar. You just need to have some imagination and be ready to use it. I've seen some of the most unique home bar designs and if you want to go all out, feel free. But, a few changes can turn a room into your own home bar within a matter of minutes.