How To Build A Bar Step Four

Building The Bar Top

       Building your bar top may be the most important step of building a home bar.  This is where all your friends are going to be staring as the sit and suck down their drinks.  If you choose to use wood for the bar top you may want to use somewhat higher quality wood.  You can also use tile, granite, or anything else that you can think of.  For this example we will be using a 10' sheets of oak ply. 

       To construct the first piece of your bar top you need to cut a rectangle out of the side of the wood that is 8" by 84".  This area will provide easy access to your lower counter area and sinks if you choose to add any.

       The top piece of your bar top will have a similar cutout but will be 12" deep allowing for a 4" drink rail.  You will also have to cut a few inches off of the outside of this piece of wood on 3 sides.  The ammount you cut off will depend on the bar railing that you use.  An easy way to get a perfect measurement is to set up your bar railing on 2 pieces of wood and move them around until the rail fits perfectly.  Then all you have to do is remove the rail, measure the difference in the sheets of wood, and cut that much off on 3 sides.

       Once you have both of the main pieces of your bar top cut you can screw the bottom piece onto the frame.  Then attach the top piece with glue and clamps.  This will leave your bar top untouched and beautiful.  The last thing to do in this step is to add a piece of trip to box in the drink rail.  You should also add caulk around or something similar around the drink rail.  This is where the spills happen and you don't want anything leaking out.

Move on to Step Five - Bar Railing