At this point in my life, I am more about function, and what I like/want/need.

With that being said, I would probably like for my formal to have a certain look, but if I also wanted/needed a certain function, you could make it work somehow.

If you don't like the look, how about some sort of built-in, with elegant doors of some sort that could be opened and closed and conceal the wet bar area when not in use?

I am trying to think of how/why I would want/need one though if I would have opted for a formal.

There's elegance and then there's super elegance. I was in Merrywood many years ago (that was the home owned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' mother), and there was an elegant painted column in the dining room that opened to conceal a wet bar.

Thank you for your reply. The dining room is pretty big (16 x 16 ft). So my husband thinks that's a place for it. Other option is to put it next to the fireplace in the great room, and move the TV above the fireplace.
DH says wet bar in dining room could be used as a server and bar. I am concerned about matching it with formal dining room sets.
In the dining room it would be in a corner farther away from the kitchen. The distance from kitchen to the wet bar would be same from next to great room fireplace or dining room.

I vote for the great room. How often do you hang out in your dining room? If it is in the great room, you could stock the fridge with drinks, and let folks serve themselves while entertaining/watching football/etc.

I am not sure what the utility is to having it in the dining room, except that you have some room in there?

I guess we entertain more casually, and when we use our dining room we usually have had cocktails in the family room already, so we just fill up wine glasses at the table.

I personally would not want an exposed bar in my dining room, and I have a formal dining room (silk panels, 10 foot table, etc.)

I think a wet bar in a dining room would look like you were unsuccessfully trying to merge the functions of a dining room and a rec room. My opinion -- and it's just my opinion -- is that it would be tacky.

That's was my argument too. But my husband says having a wet bar next to the fireplace in the living/great room also ruins the elegance of the fireplace and also having the TV on top of the fire place also takes away from the fireplace as opposed to having a nice painting above it.

Ok....if you want just our opinions - I think neither. I had a friend that had a small refrigerator leak and ruin some hardwood flooring...with that being said - no for the great room and the dining room. I mean, how far is it really to walk to the kitchen? I think a nice server area in the dining room will be well used or if you place things in a couple of corner built ins and keep items stored out of site (like someone else suggested), then you don't have to worry about the formal furniture matching. I guess I don't understand when folks talk about inconveniences - unless your kitchen area is one mile away from the great room. Now if you had a basemenet rec room, then a wet bar would be a good idea. Again, these are just my views.

Another option is not to have a wet bar. The kitchen is right there, isn't it? If you don't have a clear idea where you need one... chances are you don't need it.

Yes, it would detract from the purpose of the room IMHO.

I don't think it has a place in the dining room. You can make it look nice for the great room though - mirror the back wall (you can get the mirror shop to do an old mirror look), use glass shelves to display glasses, group bottles on a pretty tray, etc. You could also put doors in front of it if you want. My parents have a small wet bar next to their fireplace behind doors. It is too small to put an icemaker in, but they do have a sink and drink fridge.

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I wanted to have a wet bar to put the glasses, wine bottles etc, as I don't have that much cabinet space in the kitchen. In my present home, I have to bring the glasses from my basement every time I entertain and that is a pain. So I was hoping to have a bar in the new home. We have made some changes in the building plan based on the recommendations of a designer and the spot where the bar was supposed to be in the plan has been eliminated and hence we are trying to find alternate locations. I am trying to get a version of the plan that I can post so maybe we can get some recommendations. Could you advice me how I could post the plan design. Right now I have the plans at 1/4 inch scale.

I was taking a look at Mouzer cabinets web page (see link)and they have a FOYER bar unit - not that I'd like to have one in my dream home.
Mouzer is a better than average or in my opinion, a high end cabinetry manufacturer.
I have seen wet bars in formal living rooms a few times.
I do not see why a wet bar can not be placed in the dining room and make it look formal, specially if it could become sort of a hutch/server/bar FURNITURE LIKE built in. If you do not want to see the sink, a good architec, interior designer or kitchen designer could manage to conceal the sink with sliding or hinged doors. I'd say you need a small sink and a discrete faucet with little contrast in colors. The color of the wood do not need to be "matchy matchy" as they would say in the decoration forum...by the way! Your could ask this question there:
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/decor/

Here is a link that might be useful: foyer bar unit

Wet bars are generally used for mixed drinks or "cocktails" which were popular in the 40's, 50's and the early 60's. When I was a kid everyone had a wet bar in a closet near the living and/or dining room but never in those rooms.

Cocktails had a comeback in the 80's and again more recently in the 2000's so I would expect wet bars to be popular now as well. None of my clients has ever shown an interest in one. To me they're too difficult to keep clean and an ice bucket works just fine.

To post images, you first need to upload them to a site like photobucket.com or flickr.com (you can get an account for free). Directions for joining and uploading images will be found on whatever site you chose to join.

Once you have uploaded your image to the photosharing site, it will assign an html code to your image. The html code starts with the symbol we all learned in algebra 1 means "less than" symbol" and the letter "a". It ends with the letter "a" followed by the "greater than" symbol. Don't worry, you don't have to write code or even understand it! You just have to recognize which bit of information the assigned HTML code is.

On photobucket.com, they make it easy. There you will see a box labeled "html" with the code you need in another box right beside it. Just copy and paste the code into the body of your message here on Gardenweb. You can use "ctrl C" and "ctrl V" to copy and paste. You won't see the image when you first paste it. Instead you'll see the symbols I mentioned surrounding a bunch of computer code. Once you click to preview your message, you will see the image you pasted so you'll know you have the right thing.

BTW, a 1/4 inch scale floor plan of your entire house is going to be so such a large file that when you upload it to photobucket or whereever, they will have to shrink it. At the maximum file size allowable, the image reproduced on GW will likely be too small for us to read relevant dimensions. Plus I'm assuming you're happy with the rest of your plan and don't want folks here to start making suggestions that would result in you redesigning the entire house just to fit in that wet bar. (LOL!) So, it would probably be better if you crop the image of your floorplan before uploading it so that you only include that portion of your house (kitchen, dining room, and great room area) where you want the wet bar to go.

Or you can go to Tinypic.com, browse for your JPG photo, click the download button, click the top address once, and paste to the Message Box in the forum.

Actually, we have realized that we have made a blunder with the plan. We are novices and unfortunately, we trusted the judgement of the builder and his architect. The builder is experienced and actually built 100's of homes and hence we trusted him. We built mainly because we needed a bedroom with attached bathroom on the main floor for my mom who has a disability and hence difficulty to go up the stairs. Also we have 3 kids and we wanted them to have their own rooms.

We took the plan to an interior designer mainly for decorating advice. Unfortunately we did this after the fact we had closed on the deal and digging had started. She pointed out to us that the kitchen plan is flawed. She has drawn up a design but is limited by existing space that cannot be changed as foundation is already in place.

I just have the plan and her drawings on paper. How can I get this on the computer? Sorry we are quite computer illiterate (both of us are in health care and that is all we know about)

Scan the plan into a JPG photo file or a PDF file and post it on a free internet hosting site. You can take a digital photo of it but that might be difficult to see.

Also your designer should be able to provide you with a JPG or PDF file. Has she sent you anything by email?

The architect or builder could probably provide a computer file as well.

I have asked the builder and the designer. Hopefully next week I will get them and I can post. Thanks for your input

The architect hasn't gotten back to me yet. I have scanned the 1/8th inch plans as pdf file. How do I post it?

Here is a link.

Here is a link that might be useful: PDF hosting

Joined the site and uploaded the 1st flr plan

Here is a link that might be useful: 1st flr plan

Thank you for your help with posting the plans. I have started another thread. Also will post on kitchen forum.
Have realized that wet bar is least of my troubles with these plans. But please if anybody has any suggestion regarding wet bar, I'll take it.

I don't know if this will help or not...

We put a wet bar in and hid the whole thing in a row of cabinets- we also hid the tv accessories and sub-woofers. On the right hand side of the cabinet the top lifts up and leans against the wall- that is the sink. There is a built-in ice maker to the right of it, a wine fridge way on the left, and a ton of shelf space for glasses, bar towels, cutting boards, knives, etc. We really enjoyed it (in the last house) b/c we could entertain easily without having to run down to the kitchen. However, neither one of us wanted a bar in the middle of the living room and that's why we tucked it away. Good luck with whatever you decide.