We have a great room transformation for you today, one that changes both the look and the function of the room to work for this busy family. Sarah is a mom of five kids who loves having guests feel at home, so she made a buffet in her dining room into a self-serve coffee bar where her guest can help themselves.
MY LATEST VIDEOSAs a host, it’s nice to be able to simplify and save some work while still making your guests comfortable. Guests will love being able to help themselves with these other self-serve snack solutions, too!
DIY Cooler Stand | Birds and Soap
Theater Room Snack Bar from IKEA Cabinets | MK’s Studio
Pottery Barn Inspired Snack Console | Jodi Michelle
And now, the lovely Sarah will show you how she made her self-serve coffee bar and give you some tips for making one of your own!
No Barista Needed Self-Serve Coffee Bar
Hi everyone! I’m Sarah from An Inviting Home. I’m a full-time momma to our crew of five and I LOVE it. A year ago we went from 2 kids to 5 kids, in just minutes when we adopted our oldest three kids. We only had three years experience at this whole parenting thing and suddenly had a second grader without ever having sent a child to kindergarten! My passions are adoption, parenting, organization & decor and I love to blog about all of them! When we transitioned to a family of seven we wanted to create a space that all of our kids would enjoy. We now have a space that our kids love to get creative in, we call it our inviting space for kids!
We love to open up our home to friends and family. It was a little tough, to say the least, to figure out how to still do that AND keep a watchful eye on our five little tornadoes. It took some brainstorming and out of that came our No Barista Needed, Coffee Bar.
Here are 5 Tips to Create Your Own Custom Coffee Bar!
1) Create a custom chalkboard! I measured out my space, painted chalkboard paint directly onto the wall and then trimmed it out. Home Depot was able to cut my pieces directly to size and then I used square pieces in the corners to line everything up and save from having to match up angles. I used some white paint that I had on hand to give all of the trim two coats. The total cost of this custom chalkboard was $24 and I still have lots of chalkboard paint left for future projects!
3) Create Simple Instructions for Guests. I also utilized my custom chalkboard to create a simple way of letting people know exactly where to find things. For instance, “our center drawers contain” or “hot water is ready and warm on the stove.”
4) Use a projector to create a finished look. My husband came up with the brilliant idea to display the words on the chalkboard using a projector that a friend had given us. You would be surprised who might have a projector lying around, so check with your friends to see if you could borrow theirs! 🙂
5) Finally, coordinate colors to tie your space together and give it that inviting look! I chose white, teal & yellow as my coordinating colors while still adding some other pops of color as well. I tied the teal in by painting the back of the nearby shelves, adding a little color to the corner squares in the trim and using some colored chalk.
The yellow came into play in a fun new lighting fixture that we installed above the table.
I also added a yellow tin from the dollar section at Target that tied in the yellow color and also gave me a functional space for guests to put their garbage.
It is definitely a joy to make coffee in this space whether my husband and I are enjoying a cup of java or guests feel welcome to create something special of their own and make themselves right at home.
Source List:
Chalkboard Paint – Home Depot
Light – Young House Love design from Shades of Light
Thanks for sharing your great and guest-friendly space with us, Sarah!
See the other homey spaces that Sarah is creating for her brood over at An Inviting Home.
This looks great! I would go to your coffee bar anytime!
So sweet, thanks Heather!
~Sarah
Cassity, Thank you for sharing Sarah’s amazing self-serve coffee bar. What an incredible idea! And, thank you for introducing me to another MN blogger!
Jackie,
Yay, for MN bloggers! I can’t wait to grab coffee together! 🙂
~Sarah
I love this idea! I can’t believe I haven’t thought of it myself when right by my kitchen (in my dining room) I have a hutch with drawers, and have been running out of room for my large stash of tea bags! I now plan on working using the drawer space to organize my tea bags. Thank you.
Layla,
Utilizing your hutch drawers for tea bags sounds like a great idea!
~Sarah
Cassity,
Thank you SO much for featuring our coffee bar space! We love it. 🙂
~Sarah
I absolutely love this coffee bar! Great job tying the coloring together throughout the room. Just the curtain change made a huge difference in the room. Nicely done!
Thanks Crystal!
~Sarah
That is great, I would love this in my home and it would be great for parties!
What type of chalk did you find worked the best?
Julia,
I used regular chalk. I had to keep breaking off the tips of the chalk to have edges that would continue tracing well. I’ve used chalk markers on a guestbook wall that we created after this project. I think that those would make it easier to trace with…however the texture would be different.
~Sarah