The pubs may be reopened but with many happy to avoid the crowds home bars are still trending. And one couple more than happy to stay home and raise a toast are Louise and Si Davis – after turning their cluttered garage into a trendy home bar.
More: Inspirational garden bars – all competing to be crowned 'Britain's Best Home Bar’
Sharing their garage makeover with our Ideal Home Room Clinic members, Louise writes, 'My hubby Si and I decided to give our garage a quick makeover as it had become a dumping ground for everyone!'
Before and after – garage makeover
'Our whole house is very Laura Ashley and girly, so it only seemed fair to design a room that Si could relax in' explains Louise. Adding 'Without being surrounded by flowers, scented candles and copious amount of scatter cushions!.'
Although it does look as though she managed to sneak a few scatter cushions in, nice work Louise.
'After clearing the entire contents of the garage into a skip, we gave the exposed brick work a paint in Navy blue and laid new carpet' Louise details.
'Si then spent the day building the bar from MDF panels with beading. I then sprayed the bar using Craig & Rose Artisan paint in Dark Grey Granite effect – I'd used this on my fireplace and was really pleased with the results.'
The couple added LED strip lighting from Screwfix to the bar and had a glass top made, to create the trendy wine bar vibes.
Jungle-inspired wallpaper
'I found a fab jungle inspired wallpaper on I Love Wallpaper which we used to cover the back wall and our three kids had bought the T-Rex dinosaur skull for Si's 50th – so that was the perfect centerpiece.'
Louise was keen to to cover the entire ceiling with foliage, so bought four rolls of it faux foliage from The Range.
'I stapled it to the ceiling and then added fairy lights, it was a back and neck-aching job, and required lots of Deep Heat after,' says Louise.
Rexys bar sign
The couple bought the wooden letters, for the sign, from eBay. They picked these up fairly cheap and sprayed them with silver paint to make the sign.
To add the perfect finishing touches Louise tells us, 'We then had a bar runner, coasters and cushions personalised for him as a surprise.'
The transformation was complete in roughly four days. 'We have already made such good use out of it, as all our three grown up children have had their birthdays during lockdown. So we were able to all get dressed up and celebrate with a few cocktails at the bar!'
Staying in is the new going out in 2020.
Explaining the name of the bar, Louise tells Ideal Home, 'My hubby's nickname is Rexy, so it had to be named Rexy's Bar!'.
Related: Homeowners turn an old cupboard into a brilliant DIY home bar – cheers!
*Immediately clears out the garage to make room for a gin bar.*
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