Coffee Bar Build

We will drink it just about any time of day and in any way, shape or form, just as long as it’s good coffee. From the moment Justin moved into our first apartment, we had a dedicated coffee area set up.

I scoured Pinterest and the like for hours, trying to find the perfect coffee bar that would fit our space, as well as our style. Enter, Gray House Studio, and their awesome DIY coffee bar.

With weathered wood, concrete, and an industrial vibe, it was a perfect fit for our dining area. Before I jump in and tell you about our building experience, let us have a moment of silence for the messy coffee bar that has been recently replaced…

We were given this awesome table by a family member, and we can’t wait to put it somewhere it will make more sense. Gray House Studio’s version of the coffee bar is about seven feet long! Because of that, we changed every horizontal measurement to create a coffee bar that is roughly 50 inches wide.

If you decide to make the shorter version, please note that this will cut down the amount of wood that you need. Cutting and labeling all of the wood ahead of time is going to help streamline the building process. While Justin was drilling pocket holes using the Kreg Jig and assembling the frame out of 2″x4″s and 4″x4″s, I sanded and stained the outside planks (all 1″x3″, 1″x4″, and 1″x6″ boards).

Once both sets of legs are assembled, it’s time to connect them with horizontal braces and add vertical supports. You will be attaching the masonite panels to the frame, that will eventually act as a sort of backboard for the outer planks.

If they sit only on the masonite panels, they will be attached using ½” pan head screws.

In hindsight, non self-tapping screws would have been better, but because we also used wood glue, I don’t foresee us having any issues.

It is installed directly opposite the front horizontal support so that the shelf will sit evenly on the two. After all of the planks were attached and the shelf support was installed, we brought the base inside, and put it in it’s future home.

I’m so glad that we chose to bring it inside before we put the door on, because I don’t think we could have carried anything much heavier. We didn’t mind it showing since the black is discreet, and it seems like the most sturdy option. He was going to wire up something complex, but we ended up finding a slim LED light bar at Home Depot, and it fit the bill perfectly.

A neat bonus to the coffee bar structure is that it lends itself to hiding cords very well!

After a lot more brainstorming, Justin created a plan for shelving that could go inside the cabinet door. The creators of this coffee bar plan mentioned that they installed shelves, but there wasn’t any detail, which left our options pretty open.

This seemed to work well, and we ended up with enough space to store our extensive mug collection and some extra coffee and tea. Once we were satisfied with everything structurally, we moved on to the countertops and decorative aspects of this project.

Every single blog we read on creating concrete countertops seemed to use some form of Quikrete.

We settled on Quikrete Countertop Mix for our second attempt, and the smoother texture made for a much more pleasant time.

We ended up with lots of neat variation and some little bubble divots on top of our counters, but I think it adds to the charm. Okay, so, during/after the countertop process, I got started on the shelving and chalkboard that I wanted to add to our coffee area.

After everything was said and done, I added some chalk art inspired by an adorable coffee bar that was featured on the show Fixer Upper.