01
The cabinet
Six square feet. A tall unit with a drop-down front — bottles, six glasses, a light inside. Fits a dining wall, costs less than a sofa.
Home bars
Six square feet
that change a party.
You don't need a room. You need a surface at the right height, somewhere for bottles that isn't the kitchen counter, and light you can turn down. From a six-square-foot cabinet in the dining wall to a full counter with a sink.
Start smallSmaller than
Smaller than
you think.
Most people picture a bar as a room and then never build one. The version that actually gets used is a tall cabinet with a drop-down front — bottles, six glasses, a light inside — tucked into a dining wall for less than a sofa costs. Scale up only if you'll really use it.
1,050mm
Counter height — the whole trick
6 sq ft
All the cabinet version needs
300mm
Stool drop below the counter
A cabinet in the wall,
not a room.
What makes a bar a barSix things that turn
Six things that turn
a shelf into a bar.
A home bar isn't a size, it's a set of decisions — height, light, where the bottles face. Get these six right and six square feet in a dining wall out-performs the hotel counter you were picturing.
01
Bottles on show
The wiring and the plumbingThe services that decide
The services that decide
what you can pour.
01
Power runs
Dedicated point, planned early
A fridge and a strip light both want power that isn't spurred off a nearby socket. We run a proper point in during civil work, so nothing trails an extension lead across the dining floor.
02
Fridge ventilation
Air gap all four sides
A wine or bar fridge boxed in tight overheats and dies young. We leave a designed air gap and a vent path, so the compressor breathes and the cabinet doesn't cook it.
03
Plumbing
Only if a sink earns it
A tap and drain mean chasing supply and waste lines to the spot before tiling. We commit to that at the start or we build it dry — a sink retro-fitted later is never clean.
04
Wipe-clean tops
Sealed against spirits & citrus
Bar tops meet spilt wine, lime and sticky syrups nightly. We spec a non-porous, sealed surface that wipes down and doesn't stain or etch where a raw stone would ring.
05
Bottle load
Racks rated for full glass
A rack of full bottles is heavier than it looks. We size the shelf and its brackets for that dead weight, so nothing bows or lets go over a wall of glass and stemware.
06
Discreet waste
A hidden bin in the run
Empties, corks and citrus have to go somewhere or they pile on the counter. We build a pull-out bin into the cabinetry, so the clearing-up is out of sight, not on show.
Three scalesCabinet, nook
Cabinet, nook
or counter.
02
The nook
Twelve square feet. A counter at 1050mm, bottle rack above, fridge below. Usually claimed from a dead corner or under a staircase.
03
The counter
Twenty-five and up. Two stools, a sink, an ice machine. Now it's a room, and the plumbing has to be designed in early.
After hours
A bar only really
works with the lights down.
The dimmer is half the design. Bright light and it's a kitchen cabinet with bottles on it; warm and low, with a strip behind the glass, and the same six square feet become the most-used corner of the flat after nine.
ScaleStart smaller
Start smaller
than you think.
The bar people actually use is the cabinet, not the counter with stools they saw in a hotel. Build the small version first, live with it, and only take it up a scale if you find you've outgrown it — most people never do.
- A tall cabinet with a drop-down front to start
- Bottles, six glasses and a light inside
- Slots into a dining wall or a dead corner
- Scale up to a counter only if you'll use it
The numbersHeight is the
Height is the
whole trick.
Everything about whether it feels like a bar comes down to a handful of measurements — the counter at 1050, the stool 300 below it, the light warm and low. Get those right and even the cabinet version reads as a proper bar.
01
Counter at 1050mm — bar height, not table height
02
Stools at 750mm, a clear 300mm for knees
03
Stemware hung inverted to save depth
04
Light at 2200–2700K, always dimmable
Got a corner in mind?
Tell us the spot — a dining wall, a dead corner, under the stairs — and we'll come back with the scale that fits and roughly what it costs.
Gallery
Built, photographed, handed over
Atmospheric · not a home bar
Atmospheric · not a home bar
“
It's a cabinet. It's also the most-used six square feet in the flat.
Prasun & Puja — 3 BHK, Whitefield
Questions
Asked often
Only for a counter with a sink. A cabinet or a nook needs power and nothing else — and a sink you have to walk past the kitchen to reach isn't worth the drainage.
A dead corner, under a staircase, the end of a crockery unit, or a tall cabinet in the dining wall. It doesn't want to be in the living room where everyone's sitting.
Only if you drink wine faster than you buy it. In Bangalore's climate it's genuinely useful — but it needs ventilation designed around it, not a sealed cabinet.
Begin
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