I shared our lackluster dining room earlier, and now I'm sharing the plan for the other side of the room.


Since the small console table was displaced when we installed the fauxdenza, it's been living on the other side of the wall here in the dining room.  It's worked nicely for an extra surface, but was never intended for long term.  It's also not always a good thing when you have an extra surface to clutter up.

We've been discussing possible solutions for this wall for months.

   
We both agreed that we needed some storage for our ever growing alcoholic beverages collection.

That's right, we have so many liquor, liqueur, beer, wine, mead bottles that we need an entire storage unit.

Really, it's not that bad, but we do have a lot of wine/mead, and I'm more a mixed drink gal, and Mike's trying to expand his beer-centric palette to some manly cocktails.  It really all started when we were given a giant box of liquor from our neighbor and we've been trying to figure out cocktails to use them.  They were from an elderly client of hers, so there are some things that I've never thought to use before, sloe gin anyone?

You may remember this peek at our stash back when we were in the middle of our basement remodel and every possible surface got covered in dust.

 
We've since cleaned everything up, obviously, and I put the most frequently used bottles on the kitchen counter on a tray, but what once looked like this:


A few short weeks later, now looks like this, (actually, one was just added last night after this photo was taken!):


We knew we wanted something to house our collection, and for awhile I was convinced it would be a cute little bar cart set-up.  I mean, look at these things.

Via

Via

Via

That wall could totally rock a bar cart.  I began my search.  But, one thing kept popping into my mind, this picture.


You see, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the best duster.  There may have been some bickering this weekend about this very topic, that and the ugly truth of hairspray overspray and it's ability to coat every surface in the bathroom.  But I digress.  I was worried that a bar cart and the open storage of all the bottles and glassware would create a dusty situation that being honest with myself, would not be maintained.

That's when I stumbled upon this photo that changed everything.  Behold closed bar storage!

Via

I loved the metal/wood combo and the glass case.  Since our dining room is actually quite small, I didn't want anything visually heavy, and thought a glass case, (as opposed to a bookshelf or something), would be best.  I knew Mike could build the base, (he's somehow convinced me that he needed a welder), so I went out to search the internets for a case for the top.

And, I came up empty.

The biggest problem was the depth.  Again, space is tight, and every inch counts.  All the cases I found, mostly on Craigslist, were too deep.  We needed something around 15".  Around this time I started seeing a newer item from Ikea.

Via

It's from the STOCKHOLM collection, which the closest store to us didn't carry, so I only saw it a few places online.  I couldn't find any reviews from people who had bought it, but I couldn't get it out of my mind.  The size was perfect, coming in at 16" deep, and the design was very similar to my original inspiration.  While I really liked the wood/metal combo of the original, the white/wood was nice too.

While I was visiting my parents and grandmother in Florida last week I asked to stop by the Orlando Ikea, since according to the website, they carried them.  While they only had the yellow one in the showroom, I liked the quality of it and went ahead and bit the bullet and bought it.  The package says beige, but all the photos online look white so, I'm hoping that when my dad drives up in August, (yes, I have to wait that long!), it'll be more like the "Ikea White", which looks beige compared to a bright white, but still in the white family.

We have enough bottles to fill the sucker, but we also have a lot of cocktail supplies, so I'm looking forward to styling it a little with our fancy glasses and shakers.  Now I just have to wait, my least favorite game ever!