Built in bar ideas

hi! we are in the process of turning our garage into our new living room. this means the hallway that used to be our mudroom / laundry room will now be just a hallway that connects our living room to our kitchen (and the laundry will move to the basement). we’ve decided to repurpose the nook that had our washer and dryer into a built in bar.

the room is painted red now, and i’d kind of like to keep it that way. i think i want to tile the backsplash of the bar, but i’m having a really hard time picking the right combo of tile (with personality) + countertop + shelves + cabinets that looks good together.

i was generally leaning towards delft tile because we’re going for the british country vibe and i think the blue and white look amazing against the red, but i can’t quite figure out what to do with the other materials in that scenario.

here’s the project. would love any thoughts or ideas on the materials :pray:

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So exciting! What shade of red is the mudroom/hallway? Is it brighter or more like a burgundy? Generally speaking, I love the way red looks with a dark wood grain, something moodier feeling. This color combination is speaking to me:

I love the mix of red and brown with pops of green and yellow. If you decided to not go to the delft tile route, those colors could be fun to weave in, even if it was with a more natural wood grain.

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Looking at Concept 1, I think there is a disconnect between the tones of the bottom half vs the top half. On the bottom, you have colors with a more yellow undertone that clash with the darker wood shelving. I like the darker tone with the red and tile better than the floor tone, but of course, flooring is way harder to change. What if you did a cream paint with purple/blue or greener (yours is kinda green yellow? always hard to tell in the rendering) undertones to coordinate with the red but also help tone down the yellow-orange tones of the wood a bit? Then for the curtain, something that ties all the colors together. What wood tones are in the rest of the space? Maybe pick one of those that has a warmer undertone and use that for the shelving to further tie everything together.

ok i went rogue after your guys’ feedback and i decided to kill the red. the room this hallway connects to has terracotta tile, and i was really not liking how the dark red walls clashed with the burnt warm red terracotta. i also couldn’t afford to tiel or wallpaper the back wall and was getting tripped up on how to really play with the red in the absence of tile and wallpaper.

i also to get rid of the arch so that we had more shelf space.

now i’m headed more in this direction, using more natural materials and colors, but i can’t decide which exact materials to use where. what do you think??

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oh wow I love this direction!
personally drawn to the Bar (Cream, Wood + Soapstone), though I do love a skirt!

I’ve been reading up on color drenching and monochromatically designed rooms and I like the idea of the monotone hallway leading into the great room- it feels very dramatic :sparkles: