Pin it, Pin it real good...

True to my pinterest addict colors I was looking for an alternative to using one whole cabinet in our itty bitty kitchen to hold all of the glasses, bottles and barware. I came across some great on pinterest like....

One in particular stuck out to me and I thought "that's it!". It was perfect for my little space.

I searched every thrift store and even pleaded to friends on Facebook to donate and what do you know? The 'ol Facebook pulled through. About 2 weeks after I posted, an old co-worker offered up her old book case that was in her kid's playroom. The thing was in bad shape but was solid wood. I had so many options of what I could do with it! I hate that I didn't take a before picture, but this was the work in progress.












It was an easy, but time consuming project. We sanded, stained (dark red mahogany, bought from Walmart for about 4 dollars), sanded, stained. Once that was done, I took all the shelves out, taped the back of the bookcase off and primed it with a spray primer....Although it was fast, it was messy. I would recommend painting it on. Once I put 2 coats of primer on and they were dried I started painting the back of the book case. The pictures don't really look like the color. It was a mustard color, a good mix between yellow and gold. Unfortunately there's not a BIG contrast between that color and my wall color, like I had hoped. This took probably 4 coats to look even. Then I had to touch it up because when I pulled the painter's tape off it took some of the paint with it. I'm thinking because it was too cold to be painting outside.

Ta-da! It's definitely not the "bar" I wanted and could have purchased for about $450 but it definitely is serving the purpose. I have a good bit of "tools" to add to the bar but just not sure where I want to make their home on top. For the second shelf I got 2 wine racks from Target for $17.99 (but I used a gift card so I spent $0!). Unfortunately I'm only able to use one because I was short about an inch of space so I have that one stored away for another project. On the same shelf I added a shallow bowl to put cocktail napkins in. On the second shelf I opted against using glass holders because it would have taken up space. And note to those who may want to try this project, I did find that storing the glasses upside down left a weird smell/taste on the glasses from the stain. So right side up they go! On the bottom shelf I used a Pampered Chef trifle bowl to keep all of our mini bottles in and then lined all of the bottles up beside it. The only thing it is lacking is a home for probably the 100 koozies that we have. If anyone has a suggestion, please let me know.

There you have it, my bookshelf bar. If you try this project please post pictures!

-Caren