The entire time I’ve been planning my kitchen, I’ve had one reoccurring thought: where will I eat? The kitchen is TINY; there really isn’t room for a set of table and chairs anywhere in the space. After finishing the countertop installation, I had some leftover butcherblock, and that was when I had the idea of a bar! I could use the leftover butcherblock to make a bar!
Before installing the bar, my kitchen looked like this:
Keep in mind this is mid-remodel, so don’t judge just yet!
I figured I could fit a small bar against the right side of the kitchen. It would have to be small, and the barstools would have to fit entirely under the bar when not in use, but it was do-able, and would add at least a little seating to the kitchen!
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I started with the two pieces of butcherblock in the picture below. The shorter piece is 14 1/2″ tall. I decided to cut a 14 1/2″ piece off the bigger piece of butcherblock, and then put the two pieces next to each other to form the bar.
While I could have cut one long piece from the bigger butcherblock, I was concerned it wouldn’t be long enough to comfortably seat two, plus it would have required having an exposed cut end. After cutting with a circular saw, the cut ends weren’t super pretty, so I wanted to avoid that.
Once I had the pieces cut to be identical, I installed them using these shelf brackets. They were heavy duty and claimed to support up to 600 lbs per pair, which I hoped would mean they’d securely support the bar and everything I put on it. While I wouldn’t sit on the bar, normal weighted things seem pretty secure so far.
I have crazy plaster covered in drywall walls, so I purchased extra long 3 1/2″ screws to secure my shelf brackets to the studs. Since I was putting up four brackets, I wasn’t able to get every single bracket into a stud: on one bracket, the screws attach to these molly anchors instead.
While I had some concerns about the mollys holding the weight of the bar, I figured that since there was another shelf bracket that was secured to a stud, things would be fine. I haven’t had any issues so far!
Molly anchor in wall!
All in all, I absolutely love having a seating area in the kitchen. It’s great to not have to carry my meal into the dining room every time I want to sit down. I’m enjoying it a lot. I’m also completely obsessed with the barstools and the mirror, go see how build them if you haven’t already!
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