Designing and organizing my home coffee bar has been a priority for a while. A cup of coffee is how I start my day; in fact, I consider it to be the best part of my day quite often. I love the cool glowing light of mornings, reading my Bible, and sipping my coffee to set the day off on a positive note. Having a home coffee bar where everything can be easily accessed and look decluttered and inviting just makes that all the more enjoyable for me.
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How do I set up a Coffee Bar at Home?
When it came to how to set up my home coffee bar, I considered the following—location, supplies, organization, and styling.
The Location of Your Home Coffee Bar
I knew when we built our house that I wanted the coffee bar to be textured, cozy, and layered. I opted not to have it built into the kitchen cabinetry. Instead, I wanted to use antiques and textured finds to create a home coffee bar with character.
Once it was decided that the coffee bar would not go in the kitchen, I had to decide where to put it. Two places came to mind—our breakfast nook and the primary bedroom. (A home office is another room where a coffee bar would make sense as well.) Considering that my husband is not a coffee drinker and that I wanted to have coffee easily accessible for my guests, I opted for the breakfast nook to house our coffee bar. The breakfast nook is the first room guests enter after leaving the guest bedroom, so it felt like the perfect location.
Does a Coffee Station have to be in the Kitchen?
I could have set up a coffee station in the kitchen on the counter and still accomplished my goal of having character and antiques, but I wanted the counterspace to be as open as possible. Plus, the breakfast nook is adjacent to the kitchen, so it feels like it is right there anyways. In my opinion, your coffee station can be anywhere you want it to be as long as you have an outlet for your coffee pot.
Do you Need a Sink at a Coffee Station?
I would even go so far as to say that you do not need a sink at your coffee station. Would it be convenient to have a sink near your home coffee bar for rinsing out the coffee pot and filling it up? Yes, but I do not think it is a necessity as long as you have one nearby. Ours is about ten steps away, but for added convenience I have the bar stocked with gallon jugs of water. (This comes in handy too during a storm should our water supply be interrupted. I do not have to worry about gathering water in a panic since I already have a small stock of it in my home coffee bar.)
What Items do you Need for a Coffee Bar?
Besides an outlet and a nearby sink, what else do you need for your home coffee bar? I think your coffee bar can be as simple or as fancy as you take your coffee. I am a dairy-free creamer only, mild roast coffee drinker. Plus, I enjoy an occasional hot tea or dairy-free hot chocolate. The must-have items that I have in my home coffee bar are as follows:
- Coffee Maker—I have the Keurig K-Duo, so I can have a single cup for myself and a larger pot for when we have guests.
- Coffee—Ground and Whole Bean Coffee (regular and decaf), K-Cups (regular and decaf)
- Mugs—Ones I use everyday and sets for guests.
- Coffee Filters
- Coffee Grinder—I have an electric one for convenience, and a manual one for times I want to make drinking my coffee feel extra special.
- Creamer and Sugar Set—I pull this out on special occasions or for guests; otherwise, I just keep my creamer in the fridge.
- Baskets for storage
- Canisters for storage
- Tea—Green, Black, Herbal
At some point, I might add some additional items to my home coffee bar:
- Tray—One to go under my coffee maker and catch splatters. I’d love for it to be antique or vintage.
- Spoons—I would love to have some mismatched vintage ones for stirring coffees and teas.
- Syrups—I would not want the added sugar for everyday coffee drinking, but it might be nice to have some small bottles on hand for entertaining in the winter months.
- Milk Frother—An everyday luxury item for coffee drinking that I might consider getting in the future.
The Organization of Your Home Coffee Bar
The organization of my home coffee bar began with sourcing the furniture that would serve as the bar. Once the larger pieces were in place, I had to decide how to use them and get additional storage for coffee and accessories.
Antique English Pine Cabinet and Hanging Shelf
One of the delays in setting up my coffee bar was finding the right pieces of antique furniture. Originally, I had a three-drawer pine dresser in this space, but I knew it was too low and would need to go into another room. I wanted a taller cabinet with doors and a hanging shelf.
Sourcing those items took several months. I searched in many antique malls, antique shows, auction houses, and online. I even asked some antique dealer friends and several of my pickers to keep an eye out for a plate rack that matched the dimensions I needed.
Luckily, I found the one-drawer over two-door, antique, English pine cabinet on Facebook Marketplace. At 35.5 inches tall, it was the perfect height, plus I loved the deep drawer.
The antique hanging shelf proved harder to find, and I cannot tell you how happy I was when I happened upon it in the back corner of Harlex Antique Gallery on my way to Vintage Pickin’ this spring. It was the missing piece needed to complete the foundation of my home coffee bar. The mister hung it using smaller French cleats, and I let it hang empty for a week or so while I decided what I would put on it. The cabinet, however, I had a plan for that piece immediately.
Coffee and Tea Storage
The top drawer of the antique pine cabinet was filled with my favorite acacia drawer organizers. I have used these organizers in my kitchen utensil drawers, my dry bar drawers, and my grandmother’s buffet. For my coffee bar, I used them to store teas, hot chocolate, and coffee pods. I love that I can mix and match the sizes and rearrange the drawers in the future if my needs change for some reason.
The teas were sorted into organizers based on brands and the flavors I drink the most often. My two favorite brands for tea are Choice Organics and Traditional Medicinals. My favorite green tea is one with jasmine. My favorite black tea is earl grey, and my favorite herbal tea is anything with calming chamomile. I like that these drawer organizers help me see clearly how many bags of each flavor I have and which stack is getting low and needs to be restocked. Before using these drawer organizers, I had no clue how much tea was left in each box of tea.
Speaking of backstock, I added baskets behind the doors for both coffee backstock and tea backstock. Plus, I have canisters on top of the pine cabinet for ground coffee in regular and decaf. I used a small woven basket for quick access to coffee pods too.
Equipment and Supplies Storage
Everyday mugs with matching saucers were placed on the hanging shelf. Mug sets for guests and sentimental mugs (yearly ones of my niece and ones from events I have attended) got put in baskets and hidden in the cabinet.
My electric coffee grinder got added to a basket labeled “accessories” and stored behind the cabinet doors. I also added backstock of coffee filters and tea towels to this basket. A second (manual) coffee grinder was used atop the pine hanging shelf. It is a working antique reproduction and is too pretty to be stored behind doors.
The Styling of Your Home Coffee Bar
Obviously, organization is crucial to the optimal function of any area of your home, but I also wanted my home coffee bar to be stylish. Seeing beauty is a big part of me enjoying my space, so I did not want to skip the pretty in what I consider to be a necessary area of my home because, let’s be honest, I cannot go without my morning coffee. For the styling of my coffee bar, I focused on feminine elements, color balance, and texture.
Feminine Elements
With the shelf being officially an antique plate rack, I knew I would fill it with plates. I debated for a long time if I would use some from my ironstone collection, but I recently fell in love with an eyelet set that I wanted to try. For now, I thought the eyelet set would bring the feminine touch that was needed with these boxy antique English pine pieces. I have the dinner plates, dessert plates, and cups and saucers on display.
Color Balance
Additionally, these white plates balance the white I have in this room already—the walls and breakfast nook table. I pulled in some darker shades, as well, to keep the pine shelf and pine cabinet from looking too matchy-matchy. The vintage dark frame, the dark-lidded acacia canisters, and the brown antique stoneware crock break up the one-tone wood vignette. The 12-gallon antique crocks are creamy toned and color balanced by the vintage prints.
Texture
In terms of texture, I made sure to add a live plant. Can you believe I purchased this English ivy online? The flower basket I put it in has the sweetest braided detail. I added a second one to hold a few coffee pods for quick access.
With the plant element, wood element, stoneware element, and glass element, there is quite a lot of texture in my home coffee bar, creating a cozy spot.
Create a Home Coffee Bar Using an Antique Cabinet
When creating a home coffee bar using an antique cabinet, know that it will take time to source the antique cabinet. Before you go searching for the perfect piece, though, figure out the location that works best for your household—the kitchen, the breakfast nook, the bedroom, or the home office—and decide what items you will need in your home coffee bar. This information will help you determine what size your piece of furniture needs to be. Once you have the antique cabinet, the fun of organizing and styling begins.
Related Posts, Pages, and Sources
- If the organization of this project appealed to you, be sure to check out Utensil Drawer Organization and Pantry Organization Project.
- If you are curious about what the breakfast nook looked like before this coffee bar was added, check out my Home Tour.
- If you are shopping for antiques for your home, visit my Antiques Shop Page.
If you are inspired to create a home coffee bar using an antique cabinet, I would love to see your completed project. Be sure to tag me @inheritedadco in your home coffee bar photo.
