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Create Your Own Self-Serve Coffee Bar

Written by Cass

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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.

Create Your Own Self-Serve Coffee Bar | featured at Remodelaholic.com #coffee #selfserve #guests @Remodelaholic

As 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 box stand tutorial by birdsandsoapDIY Cooler Stand | Birds and Soap

movie theater room snack bar, Rate My Favorite SpacesTheater Room Snack Bar from IKEA Cabinets | MK’s Studio

old table into snack bar console, by Jodi MichellePottery 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

by Sarah of An Inviting Home

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.

Create Your Own Self-Serve Coffee Bar | featured at Remodelaholic.com #coffee #selfserve #guests @Remodelaholic

 
I can literally just hit the brew button, turn on the kettle and invite our guests to make themselves right at home. Since we live in Minnesota warm drinks hit the spot and who doesn’t love choices! 🙂
 
coffee bar before
  
bright yellow and turquoise self-serve 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!

2) Utilize storage space in a creative way. I wanted our guests to have various drink choices but also be able to easily find what they needed. Since we don’t have fancy dishes to store, I was able to utilize our buffet and store the drink options in the drawers.
 
use drawers to organize tea or other drinks in a self-serve coffee bar for guests

 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.”

self-serve coffee bar with chalkboard menu

 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! 🙂

Also, small chalk with sharp edges works best! It took me about two hours to trace everything. I don’t plan on changing it any time soon. 🙂

coffee bar chalkboard menu

use a projector to trace letters neatly for large chalkboard menu at the coffee bar

 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.

organized self-serve home coffee bar

The yellow came into play in a fun new lighting fixture that we installed above the table.

yellow and turquoise home coffee bar

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.

turquoise and yellow coffee bar

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. 

Create Your Own Self-Serve Coffee Bar | featured at Remodelaholic.com #coffee #selfserve #guests @Remodelaholic

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. 

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Remodelaholic is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Please see our full disclosure here.

Published: August 10, 2013Filed Under: Decorate, Dining Rooms, Guest Bloggers, Remodel Inspiration By Room Tagged: Guest Bloggers, snacks

About Cass

Cassity started Remodelaholic with her husband, Justin, to share their love for knocking out walls together. Since then, Remodelaholic has become a great community and resource for all those wanting to know how to make their builder-grade home BEAUTIFUL on a budget!


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Comments

  1. Heather says

    August 10, 2013 at 7:47 am

    This looks great! I would go to your coffee bar anytime!

    Reply
    • Sarah @ An Inviting Home says

      August 12, 2013 at 11:55 am

      So sweet, thanks Heather!

      ~Sarah

      Reply
  2. Jackie says

    August 10, 2013 at 10:33 am

    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!

    Reply
    • Sarah @ An Inviting Home says

      August 12, 2013 at 11:57 am

      Jackie,

      Yay, for MN bloggers! I can’t wait to grab coffee together! 🙂

      ~Sarah

      Reply
  3. Layla says

    August 10, 2013 at 4:29 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sarah @ An Inviting Home says

      August 12, 2013 at 11:56 am

      Layla,

      Utilizing your hutch drawers for tea bags sounds like a great idea!

      ~Sarah

      Reply
  4. Sarah @ An Inviting Home says

    August 10, 2013 at 4:32 pm

    Cassity,

    Thank you SO much for featuring our coffee bar space! We love it. 🙂

    ~Sarah

    Reply
  5. Crystal says

    August 11, 2013 at 11:23 am

    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!

    Reply
    • Sarah @ An Inviting Home says

      August 12, 2013 at 11:54 am

      Thanks Crystal!

      ~Sarah

      Reply
  6. Tom says

    August 14, 2013 at 4:48 pm

    That is great, I would love this in my home and it would be great for parties!

    Reply
  7. Julia says

    May 6, 2015 at 7:38 pm

    What type of chalk did you find worked the best?

    Reply
    • Sarah @ An Inviting Home says

      May 7, 2015 at 5:47 am

      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

      Reply

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Hey there, I am Cassity! Nice to virtually meet you!

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