I’m a collector of some of the more exotic craft spirits, an enthusiast for historically accurate cocktails and a hobby bartender. As such I needed to build a bar that would server my needs at home in various locations inside and outside as well as for travel for events.
The construction is from cabinet grade 3/4 plywood and all molding, including the gul-like bar top edge, were made from cheap #2 pine. The finish is an espresso stain and polyurethane. The modular aspects are fastened entirely through friction only via rabbeted panels and french cleats. The bar goes together and comes apart in only about 15mins and I have successfully packed the whole thing into my SUV with the seats down. The dimensions of the bar are 8×8 with an interior of 5×5.
It goes together like this:
#1 Seat the four pillars on the bottom bars:
#2 Slide the wall panels in between the pillars into the bottom bar:
#3 Set the bar tops down so the french cleats lock into the pillars and the panel into the rabbet under the bar top
#4 Put in the foot bars
#5 Set the shelves in place
Any you’re done!
Making the bar top molding was an interesting endeavor as purchasing real molding would have been hundreds of dollars. I found this neat technique of cutting the cove by building a jig to run the lengths down a table saw at an angle and slowly raising the blade over multiple passes.
I think there is room for improvement in my execution but I’ve found the design to be very effective. The modular approach also gives the opportunity to have different bar tops lengths and pillar configurations so that you could plug together different pieces to assemble different bar sizes and shapes. Here are some other build pics:
