DIY: Building a home bar

I am one of those people who gets an idea in my head and then fixates on it until I can do it. Just before we moved, it was bar carts. I've been obsessed with having a bar cart ever since Matt and I started talking seriously about moving in together, and on our first trip to Ikea after moving in, we nearly bought the Raskog trolley to make this dream a reality.

But then I saw this picture, and I liked it. A lot.

And THEN we realised we had a space in our new living room that would fit that rather nicely. Now, one of the things I like about Matt is that he gets excited about my silly ideas too, and as I was showing the above picture to my colleague at work, he texted me to say that he just wanted to go and get the unit now. So, about two days after first seeing the picture, we hit up Ikea and dropped £45 on a Kallax unit.

It was a much better plan. For a start, we have a LOT of glassware for two people, and genuinely needed the storage. I've done a few cocktail features before, and so have been sent glasses and cocktail equipment by a few people, and then we both bought each other glasses as Christmas presents (whisky glasses for him, massive crystal red wine glasses for me). Way more glasses than two people really need, to be honest.

Our original plan was to put legs on the bar, but it's a pretty perfect height as it is, and given the amount of breakables it's housing, I wanted it to feel as sturdy as possible. Everyone talks about it as soon as they come into our living room, and I love that it's useful storage while looking pretty awesome, too - it's also a good spot to put out things I love, like my vintage typewriter. We've had it built for a few months now (it was up within about a week of moving in back in Feb!) but I've been holding out posting it until I put up appropriate bar art, courtesy of my newfound calligraphy skills. It's a Simpsons quote, and a good 'un.

The only problem is that it doesn't stop us buying more glassware that we don't need - if anything, it makes it worse, hence the martini glasses we've never used, and the brandy glasses which I love, but Matt doesn't think are suitable for cocktails (because they're enormous). I think I might need some champagne saucers, too...