There’s a bar in the garden

When we began looking for our next house we never in a million years would have expected it to have a full blown bar in the garden and when I tell you it was a surprise I really mean it as it wasn’t even really mentioned in the house listing either. Now, when people mention garden bars I think of Covid times - early 2020 when everyone realised they couldn’t spend every weekend down the pub anymore and decided to DIY themselves a beach hut style bar in their back garden. Our homes previous owner however, took it to the extreme and built a full blown concrete building at the end of the garden and fitted it with an actual pub bar. It wasn’t exactly in hosting condition though, so todays post is a little before and after of how we’ve made our garden bar ‘party’ ready.

So, as you can see, when we first moved in the bar was very cold and both bare yet cluttered. The floor was still plain concrete (minus a square of tradition pub carpet which we got straight out as it smelt so fusty - you can actually see it out in the garden if you’re curious) and the walls were mainly flat white with one deep navy wall which was pretty badly scuffed. There were no skirting boards and the whole place definitely needed a little love. The day we moved in anything without an immediate home got put in here so first job as clearing it all out ready to start a fresh. *trigger warning - spider photo coming up*

Clearing out was a big job in itself and honestly I can’t even say we got it all done in one day. After clearing out it also needed a quick clean as the place was full as cobwebs, dirt and as you can see above, absolutely massive spiders. Once the dirty jobs were out the way though, it was onto the fun part. 

Before getting carried away with myself and risking ending up hating the final project, I bought some paint samples and tested how well they would cover. Luckily, it was pretty spot on straight away so we didn’t have much messing around there. I also spotted a beautiful 6 chair dining table in a local charity shop and after a bit of back and forth we decided to buy it and get rid of the old miss matched bar furniture. At £100 it felt like a bargain, even if the shop owner was disgruntled it was going in a garden bar and not someone’s house. Then, after a pricey trip to B&Q we were ready to start decorating.

First up, panelling. As soon as I saw this space I knew I wanted it panelled and I’m so glad we went ahead with it. We just bought the MDF wall panelling kits from B&Q which meant everything was pre-measured - we just had to so a bit of math to make sure spacing etc was correct (luckily that’s my husbands strong point). This was definitely a two man job to get the best result and once it was all stuck on I left my husband to do the filling. (I was about to paint the whole place after all)

 

Painting was a pretty painless process and once that was done we laid some new flooring. We just went for a wood effect Lino as, at the end of the day, there will only be food and drink spilt on it or grass traipsed in so we didn’t want to spend too much. Then was onto giving everywhere a good clean and organise - starting with behind the bar. 

A little behind the bar shot - optics are still empty but we have the alcohol ready to pop on them - just waiting for the right occasion. The fridge is also looking a bit fuller now after this photo. 

A few finishing touches were added - we popped a dart board up on the wall and re-varnished the bar to match. We popped the mirror back up and just a couple of pieces of artwork and it was complete.

Our first chance at hosting in there was for my mum’s birthday in July and we’ve used it once again since, for other family members. Both alcohol free events surprisingly! 

All in all we are both so pleased with how it turned out and even though it’s not somewhere that will get used every week - it’s a lovely little luxury to have for those special occasions - especially considering we didn’t even know it was here at first! What I will say is it will be a real shame to leave it when the time comes as I’m pretty sure we’ll never own anything like it in the future. 

What do you think? Did we do it justice?