Here's mine- it's a KA beverage center. It holds one and a half shelves of beverages, and three racks of wine. (We keep 1-L bottles of Pelegrino on the white-wine shelf with the whites.) I can never get great pictures of that part of my kitchen due to my not-so-great photography skills teamed with the kitchen's window location.

We have the smallest wine/bar area known to man...we squeezed it in under the stairs in the small hall that connects the kitchen to the dining room. I sacrificed the size of the refr to get a larger base pantry pull out next to it for liquor bottles. Since we had inset cabinets, I had to go to a minimum 12" cabinet to get the 5 piece front on it and then I would have just missed the 24" ref size. Then, I should have ordered an 18" pull out, but it was a last minute change and I just ordered a 15", the refr is 15" also, but the trim kit will make it appear 18". The ref is the Chateau Marvel(their higher quality model)...which is scarily loud for us. We are actually going to vent it into the crawl and void our warranty because I can't stand the sound of the compressor/fan all the time - especially when the opening to the right is the family room where we watch movies and of course that thing always kicks in at the wrong time. I am overly noise sensitive, can't stand it when someone leaves a bath fan on, but this even bothers my DH who watches everything on the tv way TOO LOUD!

The upper cabinet could only be 24" high because of the stairs, but we keep only our casual wine glasses, tumblers, pilsners above and it works great. Oh yeah, and my son's lemonade and gatorade mixes.

Hence, also, we added a tempered glass top to the marble here because it would be the main drink mixing station. The main refr and bar sink are just to the left and right of where I stood when I took this photo from the kitchen. So far, it works great!

Here is a picture before we installed the trim kit.

{{!gwi}}

Ours is in our entertaining/dining bar. It connects to family room and is great for getting beverages without having to come into the kitchen! It is also next to my warming drawer
so when I entertain I have a nice buffet serving area close to beverages! We love it and there is seating on opposite side!

Mindimoo: I love your wine/bar area - very pretty. I was also curious about your walls - the paint color and texture. Are the walls stucco? And the paint color is very nice - the name? I love beige and white trim together. TIA.

Hi kulagal,

Thanks for the kind words! It's always nice to hear positive comments, we love the bar and it works great for us!

As for the walls, they are really just a drywall texture - heavier than we would have liked, but there were just too many walls and spaces open to one another to skim coat everything or just do some rooms smooth - so we live with it. However, I will say it makes the walls "softer" looking.

The paint color is called Enoki and it appears a bit more beige in the picture than I think it does in our house. It has a gold-y green edge to it that I do like, but now I'm leaning towards changing it to a French Grey or something....I have to constantly change things, it's an obsession!

Just a note, I like C2 paints because they are very saturated with color, most mixes have something like 7 different hues mixed in to make the colors which gives them a greater depth and tone - IMHO.

Here is a link that might be useful: Here's the link to the paint company:

Thanks for all the replies it is giving me some more ideas. Because we never looked at beverage centers, I wasn't even sure of what questions to ask.

mindimoo - I love your cabinetry. I'm drooling. I think I would love to have something like that in an off white color. You also have me thinking about a pullout for the base cabinet.

alku05 - what size your beverage center and would you recommend that brand/model? It looks like it would fit most of the overflow we keep in our basement fridge

cdecker1 - I thought your kitchen was a magazine pic. What size is the beverage center? You also have me thinking once we get this done we will wonder why we didn't think of it sooner.

No pics yet as it's still under construction . . . but we'll have a 24" bev fridge as part of the coffee-tea-drinks area. I'm considering the VinoTemp that Costco has -- most of the ones I've seen are in the $1200 range and I'd like to spend less if possible.

Arlene

Here is a link that might be useful: Costco's vinotemp

here is a pic of mine. i am still figuring out how to arrange the upper shelves (am not planning on keeping all the glass stuff up there). Also, I haven't got the glass door panels yet... AND am considering doing a subtle wallpaper on the wall where my kids pictures are.

we went with the uline bev. fridge. it is okay... not too die for, but working out nicely.

The KitchenAid beverage center is 24" wide. We shopped for months to finally choose this model. We picked it because it has less beverage space and more wine space, which fits our beverage needs better than the two-wine rack configurations. We also like that it has three zones: a cold beverage section, a cool white wine sections and a red section. Currently the temps for those sections are reading 37, 52, 59.

The model was brand new when we chose it, and there was one GW memeber that got one right when it came out. He replaced his Vinotemp with it because the Vinotemp was way too loud for him. The KA is extremely quite while running. When it was new, I could hear the relay that controls when the fridge kicks on, but that softened up after a couple months. The appliance guy said that was normal for that type of relay (which is the "better" kind to have anyway). We bought our in spring 2007 and paid ~$900 for the panel ready model.

An added bonus is that the beverage section actually goes down to 37; many (if not most) beverage fridges have thier lowest temperature at 40. Anything above 40 is not food safe, so I wouldn't feel comfortable storing opened juice, or cut fruit in there.

AlkU05, can you tell me the model number of your KA beverage center and where you got it - local, national chain, internet? One of the things I've been concerned about is noise . . . Thanks!!

Arlene

It's a KBCO24RS that we got at a local place here in central coastal CA.

alku05 - thanks for giving the model information. You seem to be the person happiest with the volume of your beverage center.

mamadadapaige - I love the pics in the silver frame. Very artistic edge to the beverage area.

Mindimoo, your bar is lovely. May we see your kitchen, please!

... just another idea ... Here is our beverage/bar area. The photo was taken during construction. It is in the breakfast room, and steps down to the family room, so it's more of a peninsula, with two tall bar chairs on the other side. This unit replaced the standard builder railing that separated the breakfast room from the family room. The cabinets are off-white/tan color.

caminnc - just click on the photo of the bar above and it will take you to my album....mind you, it's not complete and we've been playing with accessories. The pendant lights have arrived, but now we have drywall touch up - unexpected of course, so final photos are still a bit off - darn! Thanks for asking!