Perfecting Your Garage Kitchen and Bar

Who says that garages are for cars?  These days, garage projects have taken on new lives, becoming separate living quarters that serve as detached suites for guests, movie rooms, a loft playroom for the kids, or even transformed into home-garage gyms. As a chef, entertainer, bartender, or simply a lover of food-and-drinks, you’ve decided your garage will undergo the metamorphosis into a garage-kitchen-and-bar.



Now, take these next steps into perfecting your garage space into the ultimate eatery and lounge.

What’s on Draft Inside the Garage Bar

Think about where you grab your favorite brew and imagine how smooth it tastes coming right from the tap.  Because you can truly have it all and perfection demands nothing less, imagine having a draft beer in your new garage bar. Sounds difficult and nearly impossible, right?  Wrong!  Installing a beer tap can be a do-it-yourself project.  The first step only asks that you plan out the space needed for a fridge and subsequent keg to keep the beer cold, which you already have—your garage. After making a series of holes for the CO2 canister and beer lines, connecting the appropriate clamps, couplers, and installing the screws, your garage-bar is now equipped with the most enticing part of the menu: draft beer.

Pull Up a Stool

Can’t decide between a full-fledged kitchen or lounge-style bar in your garage space?  Why don’t you settle for a compromise?  A floating island with bar stools offers plenty of space to dine, serve up your beverages, cook, and hang out, all while creating an open kitchen-like atmosphere as you buzz around the stove, fridge, and sink, and your guests enjoy their meals and time spent relaxing on comfy stools on the other side. Not only do you get the best of having a bar—the fashionable stools and whatever creative bar top you choose—but you also get the best of having a kitchen, being blessed with extra countertop space and not banishing your guests into another room while you serve them.  It’s why kitchen islands that function as bar tops are trending.

Floating Tiles Brings the Garage Kitchen and Bar Together

In the process of transforming your garage to a kitchen and bar, you may forget how important changing the flooring surface will be.  Concrete slabs will be a reminder of what your garage used to be, a place to store musky lawn equipment, all while detracting from the hard-earned cozy vibe you’re trying to establish with your renovations. Floating tiles can be a great and cost-effective flooring solution that can add a layer of warmth, atmosphere, and a key element in transforming your garage space into really looking like a modernized kitchen and bar.

A Bar Top to Blow Your Mind

Don’t just settle for an ordinary bar—get creative!  Thinking about your favorite, hip, go-to bar spots, none of them probably have just a plain bar top, do they?  For your garage-bar, go big by designing a bar built from repurposed beer or wine bottles, backlit by LEDs giving them a glowing ambiance when the lights are dimmed. Make your bar top out of a customized piece of wood, having your garage-bar name engraved on its surface, use epoxy to anchor down bottle caps of your favorite beers, or set a collection of brewery coasters beneath a glass top as your countertop.

Creative Garage Kitchen and Bar Lighting

Don’t just get ordinary lighting for your renovated garage kitchen and bar, try some trendy lights that will really bring your new space to life.  Are you going for a rustic chic vibe for your bar-kitchen? Use mason jars as lights, filling their interiors with soft, yellow bulbs that will set the mood for a cool, mellow zone.  If you need some more bar décor, repurpose wine bottles into lights, or even better, cut them in half with a glass cutter and transform them into candles. Believe it or not, it’s the smaller details that will truly bring your garage to life, and having unique and interesting lighting is the icing on the cake.

Add Green Plants Inside the Garage

While they say adding red to every room is always a good idea, the new trend is adding a splash of green—and by that, decorators are talking about plants.  Tall plants, short plants, succulents, ferns, and everything in between—plants are in, and for a good reason. Greenery means happiness.  Our brains see plants and feel more relaxed.  Adding just a few plants to your garage space will not only help de-stress the room, but it will make your decorating pop, and definitely make it feel much less like being in a garage.

It’s About Creativity, Not About Expense

You don’t have to drop a lot of money to transform your garage into an amazing, usable space.  In fact, you only put the money where it counts—in sealing up windows and doors, upgrading the floor, or insulating, if needed. The more the garage’s environment feels more akin to being inside your main house, the better, and as far as the decorating goes, it won’t take much to spruce up the space.  After all, a little bit of creativity goes a long way.

You'll Need a Bigger Size Garage

Building a garage kitchen and bar takes more space than you think. Consider Danley's for garage construction so you can add that extra space you'll need to build a garage kitchen and bar inside your garage. Since 1979, Danley's been the go-to company for thousands of homeowners who are looking to add more space to fit their cars, wine cellars, yoga studio, and all the different workspaces. Speak to a specialist and get a free quote online today.