[MT Stringer]

At our friends house yesterday for the big game and our friend says "I want you to build me a wet bar".

They have a big room and this is the lower floor of a bay style house with actual living quarters above. The have a stand alone dry bar but want a wet bar behind it along the wall. Like a built in. corner of wall on the left side, a corner of the room on the other...about 110 inches of actual cabinet space available.

The wife's main wish is to have upper cabinets with glass doors so she can display her collection of glassware (collected through the years).

She only want an 18 inch wide counter top but their little apartment style refrigerator is almost 20 inches deep, so I pointed that out.

Is there a minimum counter top depth standard or is it whatever the customer wants? I would prefer to go the regular 24 inch cabinets.

I have a rough sketch that she loves so that might be the end of it. I need to do more designing of the upper cabinets. I don't like the way they drew up.

Notes: The plumbing has already been roughed in for the sink. There is an elect outlet for counter top use and one at normal lower height for the refrigerator. That is why I put the fridge in that spot. The elect is right behind it. And her hubby is an electrician so he can make any needed alterations.

I did mention to her the left most base cabinet could be built with an opening for a microwave with a drawer below it. She hadn't even thought about a microwave. I was thinking nachos! To heck with having to go up and down those stairs.

All thoughts and ideas appreciated. Pics would be great.
Thanks
Mike

 

[cabinetman]

Your drawing looks OK. For the countertop depth, there's no 'standard'. Pick out a sink and figure from there. Your countertop height looks like 34½". Is that correct? Or, is the height to accept a top and clear the refrigerator?

.

 

[MT Stringer]

Your drawing looks OK. For the countertop depth, there's no 'standard'. Pick out a sink and figure from there. Your countertop height looks like 34½". Is that correct? Or, is the height to accept a top and clear the refrigerator?

.

Thanks. They will have a counter top installed. The refrigerator clears but it has to sit on the floor. I was thinking I would make a filler strip or two to close up the hole and leave room for a replacement should that happen in the future.

The lady is going to buy a sink so we can go from there.
Mike

 

[frankp]

I agree with cabinetman. As I've been researching a lot lately for our upcoming/in-process kitchen renovation, counter depth seems to be fairly arbitrary. "Standard" cabinet depth is 24 inches but you can also put wall cabinets down as base cabinets, which then gets you 12, 15, and 18 inch depths pretty easily. If you're building the cabinets, rather than buying them, make them whatever you want. The counter top will be sold by the square foot anyway.

Let them pick a sink they like and plan accordingly. The only thing that changes from your perspective is material pricing, right? Is there any particular reason the owner wants 18? Space restrictions? A particular piece she's already thinking about?

 

[MT Stringer]

Thanks Frank. They said they were planning to turn the pool table to give more room so the dry bar can be moved out to allow room for the wet bar. The sink and the existing apartment style refrigerator will dictate the minimum size of the base cabinets. I asked them to come over and take a lllok at our buffet because it has the cabinets that will be part of theirs and almost the same size.

The room is a big one with TV, juke box and lots of seating on one end of the room and the pool table and bar on the other end. I brought a folding chair (w/ folding side table) and sat it next to the sofa so I had a warm front row seat at the Super Bowl will the snack bar no more than 10 feet from me! Just like a private box at the stadium.