The Pretty + Functional Coffee Bar
I love TV. I like to mix it up a bit between Bravo and HGTV. So, obviously shows that mix reality + home projects, like Property Brothers, Income Property + Fixer Upper are heaven for me!
I don’t know if it’s because I’ve put countless hours into these shows, but I can look at a space and have an immediate vision for it. I can see past what it is, to what it could be. When we were looking to move from a small 1950’s brick home with one bath to a bigger place for our growing family, this ability to envision came in handy. We knew within a couple minutes of walking into our current home that we loved it, it just felt right. It was not, however, our style. I am blessed to have married a man who is not only funny, a wonderful Dad but also unexpectedly very handy.
The very first thing we tackled was our coffee bar. I walked into the house on moving day, saw this cabinet above this counter and asked my husband to tear it out before the painters arrived. He thought I was nuts but agreed (this happens a lot) and it became one of our favorite spots!
When we bought this house, we moved all of our stuff into the garage and had the entire interior painted before we truly moved in. So, on moving day this cabinet had to go before our painters arrived. Never mind that we were moving, had to paint samples on all the walls, choose paint colors for this entire house, and had a toddler and a baby — this had to go.
This area of our kitchen is next to the “dining room” (which for us, is actually a homework room now) and the way it’s built they made it it’s own little space. So I found it odd they defined it that way but then added an upper cabinet like the rest of our kitchen (of course, I don’t actually have a picture of that). I knew right away I wanted to make this our coffee bar. Perhaps if I was fun like I used to be, I would have made it an actual bar. But we’ll stick with tea and coffee.
I don’t like an upper cabinet in my coffee area because it gets in the way when I’m opening up the coffee maker to make the coffee. My pet peeve is when the coffee maker gets pulled out and not pushed back. Well, one of my MANY pet peeves at least. So, that was the first thing that had to go – the upper cabinet. When I get rid of cabinets, my sister always freaks out – how could you get rid of cabinet space?! I will tell you, we had 25 upper cabinets(!)
When we moved in, the kitchen didn’t have any back splash. I added back splash to the main kitchen but left this space as it was knowing I wanted to do this cool full wall chevron pattern (and recognizing that my husband would have to be the one to lay it in this difficult pattern!). I waited several years before asking him to tackle that, ha! I love that the back splash is the same beveled white subway as the rest of my kitchen but the pattern is different, as this space is separate.
I wanted to use functional décor in this space – pieces that would pretty but also be a solution to some of the things happening here. The first thing I always do when thinking through how to organize a space or design it for functionality is to think of all the functions that will be performed in that space.
The FINTORP series kitchen organizers by IKEA were a great solution for this space. The open basket allowed for some tea storage in pretty antique canisters my husband bought me for Christmas, our cocoa mix, and a pretty touch of some succulents (faux since this space is fairly dark and I can’t reach that high to water!). The lower one I used for mugs. My guests are never quite sure but these ARE mugs you can actually use.
For coffee filters and my favorite teas, there is a large drawer but I’m gonna be honest – before I have coffee in the morning, I cannot open a drawer. Seriously, I’m not gonna do it. So, I used a cute basket to set those things out on the counter. This is one of those moments where you have to organize for YOU. Would the drawer be a reasonable place for these things? Yes. Would I actually put them in there? No. So what would end up happening is that they’d just sit on the counter and look messy. In a basket, they look neater and more intentional and it’s easy to move when cleaning.
I just love this little white cow and he’s meant for pouring creamer but I’m not the type of person who transfers creamer to a ceramic dish nor will I ever be. But, she was the perfect solution for that pesky coffee spoon that is always set on the counter, leaving coffee spills – the spoon sits right in here and drips anything into the cow and the cow don’t care.
I always spill coffee, I swear something is wrong with my carafe but I got a new one and it’s still happening… so having a hook for a towel here was an easy way to keep the space clean.
The coffee and sugar are great opportunities for functional décor. I use glass jars to set them right out on the counter. Easy peasy. Glass jars are always such an easy go-to for organizing food products – they look beautiful and do the job well.
The top drawer is for my backstock of coffee and tea and teas that I don’t drink on a daily basis. Divided drawer organizers are a great way to organize teas. I am currently obsessed with acrylic and so I wanted to use this one (HomeGoods find) in a space I would see it all the time.
This is honestly one of the favorite spaces in my house, especially when I can admire it with a nice cup of coffee!
You can always check out my Pinterest for links to items used in this post.