No Longer Topless

Last night I finally installed the countertop for the dry bar!

The last time you saw this little closet I was making a template to cut out the countertop. After sanding off the factory finish, I applied a stain to match the butcher block to our flooring. I took a scrap piece of butcher block to the nearest Sherwin Williams along with a piece of our hardwood flooring to have them color match the stain. Unfortunately, they were a little behind in their color matching orders so I had to leave it with them for a few days. I picked the stain up last Thursday and quickly proceeded to stain one side that evening. I wanted to make sure to give everything ample drying time, so while each coat/layer was a quick evening project, it took a while to get it all done. I didn't do the best job documenting the finishing process, it was pretty quick and messy. But here's an Instagram pic of the stain setting in before I wiped off the excess.

For both the stain and the finish I applied them to the bottom first, that way if there were any dings or marks from sitting on my cooler workbench they wouldn't be seen. Oh, and I did run into a little problem with the finishing product. I used Arm R Seal Topcoat in Satin, it was suggested to me by the staff at Woodcraft. The finish was fine, but I noticed that as I was wiping it on, my stain was lifting from the wood. This is after my first application of the topcoat.

It was so light that I decided to put another application of the stain on top of the first coat of topcoat. Luckily it turned back to the dark espresso color it was before I applied the top coat. From that point on I kinda just dragged my rag over the countertop to apply the topcoat so I wouldn't remove the stain anymore. Maybe I need to learn a little more about the application process. After three coats on each side with a day of drying time in between I could finally install. According to the instructions I was supposed to drill holes through the tops of the cabinets. I didn't have the drill bit that they instructed me to use (9/16") in either of our two separate drill sets, so I just went with one that was slightly larger than my screw. I drilled holes in each corner of both of the cabinets. That would be 8 holes total.

Then I lined up my countertop evenly. They suggested a gap between the countertop and walls of 5/16" I think. I used the same spacing technique from my template making to place my countertop. Just slide some extra strips of foam core board in between the walls and countertop like this. Look at this dark grainy goodness!

Now that you've got the spacing all taken care of youll need to predrill your holes for your screws in the countertop. I measured the depth of the cabinet tops (1/4") and added that to the suggested depth of the pilot holes (3/8") and taped my drill bit so I wouldn't go further than needed. Now just center your bit in your holes that you drilled earlier and pull the trigger.



The directions also called for washers, so they're in there too.

Now that the countertop is firmly in place I started to dress things up a little bit. Stacking some of the tile we planned for the backsplash on top has me questioning if its too dark. The picture here isn't too bad, but we are planning to cover the back wall with our back splash.

I picked up these yellow and teal murcury glass candle holders from Crate and Barrel after Christmas for about $5 total, and I think they look perfect in here. They really show off the satin finish too! Not to shiny or flat.

This wouldn't really be a bar if I didn't include some booze now would it. You might also notice that I found some decanters to turn into light fixtures too!

So let's take a look at the list from the mood board post.

Remove doors and hardware
Paint door jamb
Paint walls
Lay backer board
Install floor tile
Install lower cabinets
Install countertop
Backsplash (same tile as floor, or maybe not)
Upper cabinets or shelves (I think we'll go with shelves but just incase we change our minds)
Run some electrical thru the wall from the kitchen
Lighting
Stock with booze and wine



We still have a few design decisions to make but I think we've made it past the half way point of this project. Maybe Matt will want to go shopping for tile to put on the back splash this weekend (a girl can dream right?).



So what do you think, is the tile too dark? What would you put in there? What plans do you have for the weekend?