Coffee Bar

I wanted to make a tea box but we didn’t have room for a tea box on the counter. Then my wife and daughter started making fancy drinks with syrup and we had those syrup bottles on the counter. Then my wife started making coffee at home with our very old drip coffee maker and that needed a place on the counter. That was the last straw. Time to make a coffee bar. I started by figuring out what I wanted to do for the fridge. Previously we had a chest freezer in this location and it was my intention to buy a two drawer freezer to replace it. Turns out small undercounter freezers are incredibly expensive. I suspect because they are a niche market for large custom homes. I switched directions and went with a drink fridge instead. Another issue we have is too many drinks in our main fridge and rather than have a second fridge in the garage the plan was to move the chest freezer to the garage and install a drink fridge here. Once I knew that it was quick work to figure out the dimensions of the space. The wall is straight in this spot but curves off to the right so I maximized the drawer width and set the depth to align with what the fridge needed.

The cabinets are made of poplar and birch plywood and painted white. For a small project like this a I prime with a roller and then use a few cans of semi-gloss spray paint which gives a nice finish. The top was white oak which was surprisingly expensive even though it wasn't quartersawn. I did some projects with this wood a few years ago and it was much cheaper. There was already power for the fridge and I ran the led lights from a transformer in the cabinet to the shelf above and used a remote for the light switch. That door has a sliding door so I couldn't really run wires. I used a metal bracket for the floating shelf. I was amazed at how much tea and coffee we owned in other cabinets. It barely fit.