Lesson 5
Today's objective: Making it personal 👣
Today's outcome: Those special elements that make your coffee bar unique
Hi Coffee Loving Friend!
YOU MADE IT! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
This is the final lesson in the coffee.bar design course!
This lesson is lots of fun as we focus almost entirely on adding those personal elements to your coffee bar that will really make your space unique.
I know I sound like a broken record ... but I'm gonna repeat it again. Good design matters!
And because we've learned the importance of how something looks and functions, this should give us that extra motivation to really put those beautiful final design touches on our home coffee bars!
We said back in the introduction of this course that:
"There's no reason why you can't put grandma's old electric coffee maker on your kitchen counter and be done with it... you got yourself a coffee bar!"
But that's not our focus here!
We want to design & build or enhance a space in your home that replicates a real coffee shop. Not just any café though. The place you visit that gives you those warm and joy-filled feelings as soon as you walk through the door. We want to create a space in your home:
- That you LOVE spending time each day
- That is the social center of your home where friends and family gather
- And where you can brew delicious coffee to be shared by all
Now, I don't know 'the WHY' behind your decision to sign up for this course. Everyone will have different motivations and reasons behind wanting to build their dream coffee bar at home.
- Maybe some of you have been introduced to the speciality coffee world and often visit great local coffee shops — now you want the same thing at home.
- Perhaps some of you want to become (or already are) a coffee content creator and aspire to grow your social media following — once you hit that 5000+ follower mark brands will start to reach out for those coveted product promotions.
- Maybe you're a barista at a café and want to create a beautiful home bar of your own.
- Some of you may be 'gear heads' and love buying and selling all the latest brewing, grinding, and serving equipment —and now need a space to conduct all your crazy experiments at home.
- For some this may be a natural progression after already brewing delicious coffee at home for years — and now you've got that desire to take your home brewing experience to the next level!
Whatever your 'WHY' is ... I'm happy you're here. I'm happy you've made it to lesson 5, and by now I'm hoping you've almost completed (or are in the final stages of) designing & building (or enhancing) your DREAM HOME COFFEE BAR!
Personal touches
I love every step in the coffee bar building process, but this part really has my heart. Now's the time we get to add all those special little elements to your bar that will really make it unique to YOU!
By now you've had to make a bunch of decisions:
- You've chosen a general design style for your home coffee bar
- You've chosen a location in your home for your coffee bar
- You've chosen if you're creating (or enhancing) a kitchen countertop, freestanding or built-in coffee bar
- You've chosen your coffee bar foundation — a base and walls around your coffee bar
- You've chosen what coffee gear is going to be part of your coffee bar design
- And now you're choosing what design elements you're going to add to really make your coffee bar personal
Up until now there's really only been a few steps that allowed you to really make the design of your home bar unique.
The foundation from lesson 3 is one big opportunity to inject your personal design style into your coffee bar by choosing a unique base and designing the walls around your bar.
Lesson 4 outlined an opportunity to utilize your coffee gear as part of your design. Your gear can really make your home bar stand out as unique.
But this step — adding those personal touches is really where we can influence the overall design style of your coffee bar.
Here are some examples...
...of different design elements you can incorporate into your home coffee bar!
Wall art:
Displaying gear:
Shelf Accessories:
Black framed floating wood shelves to display car model, cup & saucer, and plant life.
Photo: @flat6breakfastclub
Coffee books, framed art, glass work, & plant life displayed on another black framed floating shelf.
Photo: @alexander.mills
Plants:
Lighting:
Rug or flooring:
Homework
Choosing your design details
This step is supposed to be a really fun part of the process so don't stress over it too much. It's perfectly fine to add things slowly over time too if you don't feel you're quite ready.
Definitely consider adding:
- A shelf, or shelves if you have the space
On the shelves, perhaps display a brewer or carafe, mugs, books, a camera, collectibles, vintage items... etc. You can put anything on the shelves that bring a smile to your face!
- Some artwork, which can be hung on the wall or set on top of the bar and leaned against the wall
- Some greenery or plant life always looks great and brings in some color and natural elements
- A unique lighting element always adds a ton of character (if installing a pendant light be sure to get a qualified electrician to do the electrical work)
- And if possible a small rug can really add some comfort while standing at your bar as well as some visual interest.
These things will really add personality to your coffee bar and make it unique.
- A reason you may NOT want to add some personal items is if your coffee bar design style is modern or minimalist. Then it's likely your coffee bar will maintain a clean, uninhibited look.
It's also ok if you changes things up! My coffee bar changes monthly...
I change the little personal elements every couple months to keep things looking interesting and fresh for me and my family. You may not prefer the look of my coffee bar, but as long as I love it, and my family and friends enjoy it, then that's all that really matters!
Just to give an idea, in the above photo I have:
- 3 small hanging shelves that I rescued from my grandparents' garbage
- A photo of my wife and I on our honeymoon almost 13 years ago now
- A small birdhouse toy my great grandfather made 40+ years ago
- A pack of James Bond playing cards my father-in-law gave me
- A bottle of whiskey that's made to be mixed with other drinks
- Two Japanese fountain pens and a bottle of deep blue ink
- A globe my kids gave me for Christmas a few years ago
- A James Bond DB5 lego car my kids built with me
- A Hario carafe with olive wood handle I love the look of
- A sealed glass container I store my opened espresso beans
- A hanging pendant with Edison bulb
- A vintage table lamp with Edison bulb
- A large Persian rug that you can't see in the photo
- And lastly — a couple plants my grandmother gave to me
All this is to say: add the things that you love that are meaningful to you. It doesn't always have to make 'design sense' if you get a lot of joy out of seeing something in your coffee bar each day.
Pro-level move
Here's the practical steps to take as you decide what personal elements to add to your dream coffee bar:
- Be selective in what you add to make your bar unique and personal — only choose things that are really meaningful to you and bring you joy when you see them each day.
- Take your time and plan out what you want to add. You can slowly collect the pieces before even integrating them into your bar — just store things away until you're ready to put them up.
- Ensure the personal elements you add are in line with your chosen design style. Your personal accessories don't have to match completely as it always looks good when things add interest to the space, but we also want to be mindful of the overall design aesthetic you're trying to create.
- If you're going to hang things on the wall behind or around your coffee bar, try testing out the look before drilling any holes into the wall. To do this, draw out what you want to hang up on paper, cut it out with scissors, then tape to the wall. This way you can get a visual idea of something before making something permanent.
- When hanging things on the walls try and create some visual interest by changing the heights and spacing between items. We want things to feel balanced but they don't necessarily have to be symmetrical unless you prefer that look.
- Don't forget about lighting as it can add a great ambiance to your home coffee bar. Choose something unique to add even more character to your space.
- Lastly, consider a rug of some sort if you want to add a bit of warmth and visual interest to your space.
Last thoughts
Lots to think about from this last lesson. Adding all those personal elements should be a really fun final step as your dream coffee bar becomes reality! ☕💭
- Go back and read through the lesson again if you need some more time to absorb all the information.
- Whether you've been building your coffee bar from scratch or have been enhancing the one you already have, adding those personal elements can really make your bar unique.
- Once this final step is complete your coffee bar should be ready for all those Instagram photos! Make sure you tag me @coffeebardesign
So the question is... do you now have your dream coffee bar?
- Send me a photo of the final version of your home bar!
- In the email, tell me a little bit about how the process went as you built your dream bar?
- What did you find easy in the process and what did you find difficult?
- What worked and what didn't work?
Expect one more bonus email with some helpful tips & tricks as you finish up your dream coffee bar design & build!
Until next time,
Mike
