Clovis, CA
Todd couldn’t find any home bar ideas that fit his style, so he built his own with Marbled Fossilized® bamboo plywood. Because he enjoys throwing parties but doesn’t like the hassle of setting up all of their barware, he decided to make it a hidden bar with two heavy-duty, computer-controlled lifts to raise and lower the shelf smoothly and effortlessly. “My Dad and I had a great time on this project. The bamboo was a blast to work with and made all the difference,” says Todd. Now the only question is: “shaken, or stirred?”
“My wife and I love to entertain but dragging all of our bottles, glasses and other barware out of the cupboard and setting up a temporary bar every time we threw a party was not ideal. We had been looking for a better solution for storing our bottles and barware for quite some time. The problem was that we could never find anything that quite fit our style. We both like clean, simple design without a lot of clutter and we didn’t necessarily want everything out on display all of the time. Because we couldn’t find anything that worked for us, we decided to build our own. I came up with the idea of a bar with a lifting shelf section as a way to have easy access to everything during parties and have it neatly tucked away when not in use. I enlisted the help of my Dad who is an incredibly talented woodworker with a background in engineering to help turn my crazy idea into reality. This project would not have been possible without his talent and creativity (not to mention his garage workshop) and we had a blast working together.
We chose bamboo for a variety of reasons. I love that it is sustainably harvested and incredibly durable, but honestly, the look is what sold us. We love the exotic look and dramatic grain of the Fossilized Marbled plywood and it was the perfect choice for what we wanted to do. I wanted the front and top to look like they came from one continuous piece so matching the grain of the wood was key. The bar is actually two separate pieces, the shell and the interior lift section. Designing the two pieces so that they would fit and slide perfectly together was no easy feat, with tolerances of less than 1/32 of an inch. We utilized two heavy-duty, computer-controlled lifts, housed within the sides of the lift section, to raise and lower the shelf smoothly and effortlessly. The finishing touches, including LED lighting, mirrored backing and stainless steel hardware really add to the simplicity of the design. The bar turned out better than we could have hoped for and we couldn’t be happier with our choice of bamboo!”
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