Lets Add A {Coffee} Bar

Jordan and I are really big coffee drinkers. When we had a standard coffee pot I think we would go through close to two pots between the two of us. He would get some at work (the joys of working in a Target with a Starbucks...) and I would most always have some more at my job. When I moved into my first house in Indiana I had a coffee themed kitchen. Taking care of the most active child in the history of the world, alone, meant a tired Mom who required a lot of caffeine to keep going. Any way, we really like coffee. For Christmas we were gifted with enough money to get one of these lovely machines.

It is a Keurig Elite. We were originally going to go with the Keurig Mini Brewer but decided the bigger version would be more bang for the buck. When I first heard about Keurigs I was skeptical. I mean, it didn't take us that long to make a pot of coffee. The Great Value brand coffee wasn't that bad. Jordan really wanted one. He had heard stories and read review on how awesome they are. He said it would be a lot easier on him in the mornings. Poor guy has to be at work at 4:30 a.m. So we got one. And I must say, I'm in love. It's beautiful to look at, has almost instant results, and the coffee selection is amazing. Gourmet coffee, in under 90 seconds, in my pajamas. Uh, YEAH! For real though, go get one.

The only down side is that it requires a grounded outlet. Not a big deal. Unless you live in a place that hasn't been updated since the '70's and doesn't have grounded outlets. Yup. We were left with a dilemma. Like I've mentioned before, we have two counter tops. To give us a little extra room we got a Forhoja island. We use this thing all the time. And now the Keurig was going to have to take up half the thing.

I really just wanted to put it here. Where the old one was. It was a perfect setup. The cups were right above. I had the coffee, sugar, and filters all next to it. And I didn't want to give up a huge space that we used.

For the time being it stayed there. But I wasn't happy about it. I started browsing Pinterest to find inspiration. I didn't have to browse long before I found this amazing idea.

via

There is no reason why I can't come up with something similar to this. I even have some extra space. You see, a while back our dryer broke. We tried fixing it, and then replacing it. To then have to try and fix the "new" one. It was a huge bummer. And then our washer broke. We were able to replace the washer, thanks to Jordan's wonderful family. But the dryer, not so much. Luckily we have a pretty nice laundromat across the street. That left us with a fairly nice sized spot in the kitchen. I had had some of my craft items there, but after purging the linen closet I was able to put it all in there. 

Doesn't look like much space. Oh, Story's kitchen was moved into her room, so that's out of the way too. So this is what we were left with.

Just last week we changed out our old entertainment center for this. It's actually all put together now, and even partially styled. I just haven't gotten around to taking pictures. Before the new system we were using an array of furniture. I decided to take one of the pieces and see if I could fit it into the coffee bar design. As luck would have it, it's a perfect fit. I haven't really spent a whole lot of time on the piece itself, but I have plans.

Everything is sort of thrown on there. I taped down two placemats. I don't know if I want it to have a fabric top. It looks nice, but is harder to clean.

I'm not sure if I want to keep the piece in natural wood or if I should paint it something fun, or even just white.

* Add shelf to hold mugs, saucers, etc. I would really like to have a shelf like the one in the inspiration photo. Haven't been able to find one yet, but I haven't looked too hard yet. Right now I have a plain shelf and a bar that I could attach to the bottom of it. I have several S hooks that I could use to hold mugs. I'll have to think on that more. My most favorite mugs do not have a handle that can be hung. They stack nicely though...

* Figure out what to do with the piece of furniture. I don't think I will keep it as is. Maybe once it warms up a bit I can take it outside and sand it. What color do you think I should do?

* I need to think of the best way to use it as a storage center. There used to be a shelf in the middle but we had to take it out to make the speaker system fit. It's a pretty good size on the inside. I think if I got a few stacking bins from Target I could put a lot of items in there.

* Now that we have the Keurig we have several different beverage options. I would like to come up with a fun and creative way to store and display the K-Cups.


So, there isn't a whole lot that I need to do regarding the coffee bar. Seems to me, I need to make up my mind about a few things first. But that's the fun part of it :) We've has this setup for a few days now. And I must say I like it. Really looking forward to having the mugs nearby.

The next area in the kitchen I need to tackle is my desk and area. Oh, and I have tomorrow off. So Story and I will be off to Home Depot to check out some paint colors :)


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