Green Bamboo Lounge: Another Fabulous Home Bar!

Join us for a visit to another fabulous home bar!

Welcome to the Fabulous Lush Gardens!

Join us for a visit to a fabulous home bar in Connecticut and a lovely tropical libation by master mixologist Paula!

A Fabulous Phoenix Home Bar

Road trip! Join us for a visit to a fabulous home tiki bar in sunny Phoenix, Arizona!

Surf Music in Connecticut and a Fabulous Home Tiki Bar!

This week we have a visit to a fabulous home tiki bar and music from three incredible surf bands! Shake up a tropical libation and join us!

Home Bar Inspiration?

On tomorrow (Thursday) night's live Facebook broadcast we'll be sharing some of our cheap and easy ideas for home bar decor, a subject I adore because it invites all kinds of creativity. Many of our friends have home bars and I love seeing what they've done - they're all so fun, unique and different! I also love perusing my mid-century decorating books for ideas. I enjoy thinking about what must have been going through some of these designers' heads as they came up with these ideas. Some are fabulous, some are hideous, but I love them all! Let's explore some home bar ideas you'd probably never thought of...

You say you don't have room for a home bar? What about knocking a hole in a wall? Some may call it "foolish" or "destroying your resale value." I call it commitment!

If you're truly not up for major construction you can always grab a couple of closet shelves at the big box store and knock together a bar in the time it takes so mix a Martini:

Or can the idea of one bar altogether and create a series of little bars for each person. You don't have to fight for a barstool at this bar - just pull up a pillow and have a seat!

The electronics restorers out there will shudder to see this bar, but it does go to show you that a determined individual will make a bar out of pretty much anything.

"But I don't have money for a project of this scope!," you might think. This table gives lie to that idea. Find a box that's a little taller and you've got a bar for the price of a sheet of glass! You may have to wait a little longer - until your town's oversized trash day - to find that sofa, though.

I've shared this masterpiece before, but if cardboard isn't your thing you can always employ beer cans for your structure. It's both recycling and proof that you put away A LOT of beer!

See you tomorrow at 7:00 PM EDT on Facebook for more home bar hijinx!

Our "New" Bar Stools

Our new bar area means that we finally have room for the bar stools that we've had for a few years now. They were purchased secondhand for an outdoor party and, other than outdoor parties, they'd mainly been in the basement, gathering dust and cobwebs. Being an older item, they're solidly built, but were a little plain, so we gave them a facelift!

I'd already taken the staples out of the fabric when I took this shot, but you get the idea. Perfectly okay, but pretty boring.

Removing the staples was by far the worst part of this job. Whoever put them in originally put them in to STAY. About two hours and 200 staples later, they were free of their fabric!

The shot I took of using the fabric as a pattern was bizarrely out of focus, but you get the idea here - press the previous fabric flat, trace around the edge and cut your new fabric out. Easy!

Fit your new fabric over the stools, then staple, staple staple and hammer, hammer, hammer! Remember how frustrating it was to take out all of those staples in step one and create the same frustration for the next owner!

And voila! Your custom bar stools for the cost of a couple of used bar stools and a yard of fabric! We were lucky in that the padding that the previous owners had used was still in good shape. If yours isn't, or your stools don't have padding, you can pick foam padding up at the fabric store. We used barkcloth, from the home decor section, for our new covers. A fabric designed for furniture is your best bet for something that will get a lot of use. Don't forget to take a coupon if you're visiting a chain fabric store, since they all have them!

Please be seated! What can I get you to drink?

Put the BAR in BARbecue!

Memorial Day is upon us and thus the unofficial start of summer! It seems as though I was just shoveling snow, although I'm not complaining - this is far better! If you're thinking of venturing outside and firing up the grill, here are some serving suggestions from the mid-century booklet Seagram's Week End Bar and Barbecue Book. You'll note that many of the recipes call for Seagram's Golden Gin, which hasn't been produced in a years, which is a shame, as it was 94 proof. Go ahead and use another dry gin - I won't tell!

Have a fabulous weekend!

When Your Home Is Also Your Set

We took a production design class at the YouTube Space here in New York the other night, which was really great, since I've been thinking that we need to refresh our "set" for the show for a while now. However, our set also happens to be our living room (and occasionally our dining room or kitchen)! I'd love to create a fantasy bar space, with fabulous mid-century bar stools and whatnot, but 1) we still need to live in our living room and 2) our living room is approximately the size of a cracker box. However, sitting in that class, it came to me - exactly what I want to do with our space! Because the changes I want to make are so big, it also involves redoing at least one other room, but that's okay. We'll be keeping our bar (my favorite piece of furniture), but pretty much every other piece of furniture is going to shift into another room. This will take both money and time, so it won't all happen at once, but I'm inspired! Here are some gratuitous shots of seating that I would love to add, along with a fabulous mid-century bar to keep me inspired.

I would love to pick up one of the fabulous MCM sectionals on the market, but they wouldn't even fit into our room!

Wish me luck! I'm going to be busy!

Storing Bar Paraphernalia

Have you ever noticed how one innocent little piece of vintage bar paraphernalia seems to sprout into a collection, seemingly out of nowhere? You pick up a set of swizzle sticks at a yard sale or uncover a handful of matchbooks in a relative's desk drawer and suddenly you've got collecting fever! And all of that stuff can really take up a lot of space. The good news is that other bar accoutrements and vintage found items often make the best storage! Here are a few ideas - dig around and you probably already have perfect items to store your cocktail-related gems!

How many shakers can you use at one time? Use some to store swizzle sticks!

The same goes for shot glasses - store cocktail picks in them!

Vases aren't just for flowers!  Store swizzle sticks, straws, bar spoons and more!

When they're not holding ice, ice buckets can hold matchbooks and more!

And an ice bucket with a lid lets you keep stuff you don't want seen hidden.

Tiki bowls make great storage, too!

This mail organizer holds swag from various events, but has plenty of room for booklets and more.

Vintage suitcases are well-known storage containers, but don't forget about the little ones! Perfect for playing cards...

Not to mention coasters, picks and so much more!

Are your records overflowing their shelves? File folder racks are a great solution! And, as offices increasingly go paperless, they're easy to find cheaply or free. This one is a street find!

Do you have any great storage tips to share? We'd love to hear them! I'm in an organizing frame of mind lately...

Door Knock Cocktails

Does anyone else remember the TV show Door Knock Dinners, where Gordon Elliott and a chef would show up at some unsuspecting person's home and the chef would make dinner using only ingredients that the homeowner had on hand? I loved that show! It was such an inspiration, not only for taking a second look at your pantry, but for seeing the items you already have in a whole new way. There are many lists available online for suggested pantry ingredients to keep on hand although, sadly, Door Knock Dinners is no more. Gordon Elliott and the chef du jour may not show up at your house ready to whip up a meal, but a well-stocked pantry means that you'll always be prepared to throw dinner together.

However, what about your liquor pantry? Suppose you've invited a few friends for drinks, but one requests a Martini and you have no gin? You don't need dozens of bottles of hooch to offer a wide selection of lovely libations! By keeping these items stocked you'll be prepared to make many of the classics and you can expand your collection as you discover new liquors that strike your fancy!

The Basics

Gin 

A blended whiskey

Brandy

A light or amber rum

A silver or gold tequila

Vodka

Mixers

Fresh limes

Dry vermouth 

A nice orange liqueur

Simple syrup

Club soda

With the above you can make Martinis, Sidecars, Daiquiris, Margaritas and all kinds of sours and highballs! Add wine and you'll have sangrias and spritzers in your arsenal as well, not to mention the many variations on the French 75 if you have champagne! And, the more juices you keep on hand, the more you can play! As you add new liquors and liqueurs to your collection you'll find that your choices grow exponentially! But, with just these items available, you'll have plenty of choices to please just about any visitor to your home and keep yourself in lovely libations for quite a while! Bottoms up!

The world of liquor is your oyster!