Our cabinetry team at Village can help you design a gorgeous and well-considered cabinet layout for your home. How you choose to move into that space is up to you. Sometimes, that task can be overwhelming, so we have teamed up with a local organization expert to help empower you to make the most of your home project investments. We invited Beth Nordby from Custom Order Home Organizing to meet us at the Village Home Stores showroom for a quick consult in one of our displays. Beth works with clients in and around the Quad Cities area to help organize them based on their individual lifestyles and needs.
Spaces are most versatile and functional when you “move into” them with intention and a plan for how they will be used. In this post, we will show you two very relatable uses of a wet bar design in your home. You may have your wet bar or buffet area staged up as a bar most of the year… but would a better use be as your every morning coffee station? With some planning and organizing, you can still use it as a bar for entertaining on those handful of days when you need it. With everything available right within reach, you can make this transition quick and easy.
Create a Coffee and Everyday Beverage Station
Coffee and beverage stations are a great zone to create in a kitchen design. They can serve so many purposes and free up space for other users in the main kitchen zones. It is important to note that a beverage station doesn’t have to be used for just hot coffee and tea. It is no secret that we are a culture that consumes a lot of beverages throughout the day. On any given day at Village Home Stores, desks are filled with water bottles, hot coffee or tea, and maybe even an iced drink of some sort. If your household has a lot of bottles, straws, caps, shaker bottles, lids, and mixes, then why not set up a beverage station at home to stay organized?
The lower cabinet and slide-out bins are a great location for your inventory of beverage wares. Think of how much cabinet space in your main kitchen could be gained if you moved all those Gatorade and Owala bottles to a designated beverage station! For households with littles, everyday family use of a beverage station can also include tumblers and sippy cup storage. Just like any other successful multi-functional space, you will need a drawer to organize all your smaller items. In a wet bar this drawer can be divided up for each use. Don’t let this drawer become an extension of your kitchen junk drawer. Use it for coffee filters, lids, straws, teas, sweeteners, and other beverage packets, as well as party napkins, bar tools, and wares.
Watch This Wet Bar Switch from Coffee Station to Cocktail Hour
"When you have a plan for things, and everything has a place, transitioning from one to the other doesn’t have to be hard."
Beth was able to make quick work of showing this same space in two ways. Press play below to watch and learn along with us.
We are completely obsessed with Beth’s tip to store all your koozies in a fancy bin or basket within reach. This makes it super easy for you to use every day and a perfect option when entertaining, allowing you to move the koozies right to your guests anytime and anywhere. Beth encourages her clients to use the shelf within reach for more commonly used items and keep the very top shelf used for décor and decorative storage solutions. Keep in mind that some of the décor and even bar accessories can still make sense left out for your everyday beverage station setup. You can also weave in holiday décor throughout the year in this top space.
Staging a Cocktail Station
The goal is to have everything ready and in place to make the transition from one setup to another easy and quick. Beth took just 10-15 minutes to reset the same space with a cocktail bar setup for entertaining.
Have some friends stopping by at the last minute? You can be ready for cocktail hour in just a few minutes. Once you make this transition a few times, you may get even more comfortable delegating the task to someone else in your household. A wet bar setup that is apart from the main kitchen can be helpful when entertaining. Hosting a big meal or gathering means you end up with a lot of folks “helping” you out in the kitchen. Having a station set up adjacent to your kitchen allows you to politely invite guests to go and make themselves a drink.
We know that a slide-out shelf in any space is a great investment. In a wet bar setup, we recommend going deeper and including a slide-out bin. Bins can give you the added height needed to store small appliances and taller bottles without concern for them being knocked over as the drawer moves. When transitioning bottles up to the counter, Beth recommends having just a handful of bottles out and using a tray to contain them and create a cleaner look.
Staying organized allows you more time at home to enjoy these amazing spaces you have invested in. Love the look of this space? Learn more about the cabinets, tops and tile in this home bar display here in a past blog post. This same finish combination could be used in a full kitchen, bathroom, or full home bar. We can also design other multi-functional spaces for you. How about a mudroom/laundry room area that is beautiful enough you don’t have to keep the door closed? Or a great room cabinet area completely customized for your household’s needs? We can help.
Do you have an area that you want to start designing with our team? We can’t wait to hear about it. Your first step is just to connect with us. You can use the webchat here on our site or complete this short form to let us know what you are dreaming up. You are also welcome to stop by and see this display and a dozen others in our showroom at 105 S State Geneseo, Illinois. Appointments are recommended so you can be sure we have a cabinet expert available to answer your questions. We are open M-F, 9 am-5 pm, and on Saturdays from 9 am - noon. Call the Village showroom at 309-944-1344. You can find more information about Beth’s services and connect with her on the Custom Order Home Organizing website. Thank you to Beth for partnering with us for this fun project.