I thought I would post photos of my bar which I have completed. I have been a silent viewer of everyone's posts here for a year while completing my games room, so I thought my bar and ideas may lend a hand to someone, as everyone else's has for me.

I originally made the bar out of oak, as I thought that was what the pool table I refinished was made out of. After getting more into door working, I realized the table was Maple. Oh well, same stain, looks the same :)

As for the bar, I still have a couple pieces of trim that I have to sort out near the ceiling, as this is part of my basement, which was two rooms with a wall that I tore out for this project. Difficult trying to match the stucco.

Anyway, I built it under the stairs, and where the duct work drops down a bit, which was a good spot as this is the least likely area for anything else. This is a good size room, about 34x24', so I situated it where I could tie in the lounge / tv area and darts / pool table area. Also, behind this room is my utilities room, which allowed me to easily add the plumbing and electrical, as well as recess the liquor cabinet. I had to a foundation wall to deal with behind the wall, between the cabinet and the inside part of the bar, so I had to bump out the lower part of the cabinet and extend this to the bar cabinets to allow for the plumbing and electrical, as the people that finished the basement before us used on 2x2's grr.

Of note, in the photos you can really notice the filled and stained nail holes in the upper bar trim on the sides. This is not noticeable other than in photos, and I guess this is because these done after, and they have no shining polyurethane on them - yet. My wife is susceptible to migraines, so I had to cut, stain and finish all pieces separately in my garage first, then put them all together. I will however be putting a final two coats of poly over everything soon. I have 5 coats on the bar top, and 3 on everything else at this point.

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Wow - that's a great looking (and very nicely stocked!) bar and some nice work! Well done!

You might have noticed you somehow made a duplicate post, though, which can confuse so I'd suggest you delete on or the other.

Ver nice bar indeed. Great work. Love the scotch collection by the way!

Eric

If I posted a lot of same at other Thread - oh well.

The bar is very nice as is all the hard work you have done on the overall space.

Perhaps the area is a bit sterile - or not - depends on your personal taste and spousal imposed limitations.

I would look all over including in area pawn shops for commercial beer neons and beer mirrors and etc.

If you really play pool (most people don't - they know the fundamentals of the game and how to hold a stick and etc. but they don't really play - pool intimidates a lot of people and a table takes up a ton of space while only four people can play at a time. We enjoyed ours for about 12 years and then really enjoyed it when we sold it and opened the space for more user friendly games less space eating machines.

If you have room I suggest you buy a decent pinball machine and maybe a coin-op commercial dart machine (MUCH better than those cheapie dart games that hang on the wall). Foosball is also a lot of fun.

Most any Williams or Bally pin from the early to late 1990s will do - you can't hardly find one of those than isn't a TON of fun.

Adding a draft beer box could be a very nice touch - we had a friend that had a bar similar to yours and he had a four keg commercial box installed - WOW - really was a nice touch.

Just our opinion - difference between average home game and bar areas and exceptional areas is the creative addition of commercial grade decorations, accessories and game machines.

Please don't misunderstand - your area looks very, very nice and a setup for lots of fun for your family and friends (now a Monster Bash or even Twilight Zone pin would really add something!!! - LOL!)

Moderator needs to merge your threads..............

Sorry for the double post, I was trying to figure this thing out and get the photos to simply display in the thread instead of links, and accidentally posted twice. Can someone help do this so I could display them like HeyNow has done in his. ....I used to be able to hack 15 years ago, now, after kids, I can barely work a site anymore :P

IMJay - thanks, and quite honestly you are saying everything I hope to accomplish one day. I actually have a few more things up now, however I wanted to make sure I didn't cross the fine line of elegant or classy bar and cheesy. That depends on the person - and cheesy isn't bad by any means, just depends on what you are trying to accomplish. My original plan was a smaller bar, that would be total cheese, caked with whatever bar'ish thing I could find. Problem was as I built it, the more lavish things got, and then some of the bar "cheese" I was keeping, I didn't want to put up. I'm working on it though. The wall the cue rack is on is getting redone soon. It is 34' long, and my plan was for sliced reclaimed bricks - likely red, however I'm trying to justify the money for it currently :)

I plan on making a lavish cue rack as well, one that matches the pool table and bar, both of which are stained in red mahogany.

Of note, if I can figure out how to add more photos I'll show some more of the Schmidt Pool Table, which was more or less salvaged from an old billiards parlor. I completely stripped it, re stained and finished.

I want to add a pinball machine, however I can't get a good price on one, so I'm waiting. Popularity has gone up with them since I started looking. I was going to sell the 51" projection screen and go with a LCD, ceiling mount it and add a shuffleboard under it, however it would get too crowded. This tv is only for sports, as we also have a theater with a projector.

I want to thank everyone who has posted anything here, I studied everything I could find. It was actually Heynow that inspired me to use rope lights, I would have never though of that before. I used them underneath on both sides, in and above the liquor cabinet. Again, please tell me how to display the photos in the main page instead of links, and please delete my other post.

As for the kegorator - there were two issues: I didn't like the idea of having a constant flow of beer on tap and tipping in 30 pounds heavier in a year's time, and second I drink mostly European beers (Becks, Zlatorog, Grolsch, Chechvar), and it's too expensive on draft.

Pretty easy to get photos to show up in the post. Go to Photobucket (or similar) and start a free account, then upload the photos you want to your account. Then you copy the image link for forums, and simply paste that link in a post where you want the photo to be. Before you submit the post click on Preview so you can see how it will look.

If I can do it, anyone can do it! :p