Are you like me and have had ‘a home coffee bar’ on the wish list for years? This year a home coffee bar I’ve always dreamt of was my Christmas present to myself! These shelves are rustic & textured, and magically arrived at my door from the Amazon fairy!
There are some functional and design items to think out when you’re creating a charming little Home Coffee Bar. I’ll share the 7 tips I learned making ours. These tips will help you design a functioning Home Coffee Bar of your own! [Some of the links in this post are affiliate links]
1. Home Coffee Bar Necessity #1: Used Coffee Grounds Receptacle
Unless your coffee bar is right next to your trash can you will need somewhere to put the used coffee grounds. The whole point of a cute little coffee station is defeated if you have to treck over to the kitchen garbage to dump the coffee grounds every time you go to brew a fresh cup.
Some brilliant mavens on Facebook gave me a progressive (crunchy) solution to this problem… a compost bin. Coffee grounds can be added to the soil for a little boost for your plants. There are some really cute countertop compost bins you can find to go with your design aesthetic. I use the coffee canister for this and dump, rinse and wipe out every few days.
*These vines have been getting these magical beans sprinkled on their soil for about 3 months now. I swear they are growing faster!
2. Wipeable & Sealed Countertop on your Home Coffee Bar
I love different coffee bars made out of different creative pieces! Although, some of the unique pieces don’t hold up well to spills. If you’re working with a piece of furniture thats not already sealed, be sure to seal the countertop. It is essential to have a sealed countertop for the coffee splashes and spills.
The base piece of our home coffee bar is a Media Cabinet from At Home, and it did not come sealed. I used 2 light coats of Fusion Tough Coat. I was hesitant to go heavy with it because I didn’t want to wait forever for it to cure before I could set up my coffee posts and use my long awaited coffee bar. But it was not enough protection…
The unwanted effect is a coffee ring stain on it. I’ll have to buff out and then add some of the Varathane Floor Poly I have left from sealing our Painted Bathroom Floor. It is thicker and more durable than the Fusion Tough Coat finish. I am confident it will hold up because our bathroom floors get far more water spilled on them from kid’s showering and they are holding up! I’ll let you know how many coats it takes to get a solid sealed finish for the coffee bar countertop!
3. Accessible Outlet for your Home Coffee Bar
On another practical note- you’ll need an outlet to plug in your coffee machines. You may need to get creative with hiding cords behind canisters. This coffee bar has an outlet behind the media cabinet. Which is a perfect location EXCEPT when I plugged it in the media cabinet was no longer flush with the wall.
A traditional plug caused a gap between the wall and the furniture. Our home coffee bar is against the wall of the main walkway in our house so it can’t stick out. If this extra gap is unsightly for the location your home coffee bar is in all you need is a flush mount extension cord. I ordered a flush mount extension cord on Amazon and was able to push the furniture right up against the wall… crisis averted!
4. Home Coffee Bar Shelf Styling with Various Sized Items-
You want items of all different heights and shapes and sizes to work with when you start to style your shelves. Don’t run to the store and drop hundreds of bucks… First, root through your kitchen cabinets, extra signs, empty glass bottles of different shapes and sizes and heights… you can fill them with coffee grounds, salt, sugar.
5. Home Coffee Bar Shelf Styling with Groupings of Items-
5. Home Coffee Bar Shelf Styling with Groupings of Items-Home designers will tell you to style your shelves with “groupings” of items. Don’t just spread the items out one by one on the shelf. You will want to group about 3 items together to create several vignettes on each shelf.
6. Home Coffee Bar Color Scheme-
6. Home Coffee Bar Color Scheme-To make it look like it all look cohesive think of a color scheme of about 4 colors max and what shades of each you will incorporate and then look for anything in your house that fits within that color scheme that you can try out on the shelves. I went with one color– green and then neutrals- white, black, wood and clay. Everything I pulled fit into those colors. You can also paint anything you want on there that doesn’t fit into your color scheme!
7. Add a Hanging Plant to your Home Coffee Bar-
7. Add a Hanging Plant to your Home Coffee Bar-A charming little hanging plant just gives so many hygge vibes. That cozy cute factor is sure to give you a genuine smile- so real that your eyes smile along 🙂 This one is new to the Dollar Spot at Target and is only $5!! It’s my favorite touch of the whole home coffee bar.
These are the things I’ve learned through the creation process of this stunning & completely functional coffee bar. And in case you were wondering- yes, coffee does taste better from my new coffee bar! Can’t wait to have some friends over for a Hot Cup of Joe.
