Dry Bar

Ever since I got my dining table, there was something missing about my dining room. That something was a dry bar. At the behest of my roommates I decided to undertake the largest piece of furniture I have ever made. Here is a cluttered picture of the final product

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I had a few design requirements. It needed to have a fridge. I wanted a place to display the fancier bottles, as well as easy access to the most commonly used bottles. Also mirrors.

This was my initial sketch:

Before I even started on the bar top and cabinets, I hung the mirrors and bought the fridge. I was locked in now.  

 

The cabinet was built from birch plywood, and edged with cherry. Ply wood edges are notorious ugly. 

 

 I had to cut hundreds of strips. I ripped them all on a table saw. Which was less than ideal, but I wasn't quite ready to spring for a proper band saw. Here they are, mostly all laid out to get a feel for the pattern. I used paduk, cherry, walnut, purple heart, and wenge.

One row at a time.... Some of the strips needed to be bent into shape, which made gluing more than one row difficult. At some point even my clamps weren't long enough and I had to get creative. Notice long strip of pine in the midde of the pictures. That's my improvised clamp.

The glueup is done!! And it's all sanded down, and ready for the finish. I used waterlox, because it is both waterproof (Which is a necessity for a bar top that will probably get wet) Yet at the same time, it won't chip like polyurethane, which makes it perfect to prepare food and drink on.