Would You Like That Mai Tai Inside or Out?
Belly up to the bar for a look at 10 indoor-outdoor counters for summer
An indoor-outdoor bar tops the summer wish lists of many afternoon cocktail sippers and their lemonade-guzzling kin. The good news is that it’s not too late in the season to commission your own and start enjoying outdoor living and entertaining to the max. Before long, those breezes will start to feel like tradewinds, and your patio like a five-star resort. But good luck shutting down the party: Your guests will never want to leave!
1. For an indoor-outdoor bar like this one in Vancouver, Canada, you’ll need a sliding track for opening and closing your windows (though shutters can also do the trick). You’ll want the bartop to extend at least 12 to 13 inches to accommodate plates if you plan to eat here, though many consider 15 inches the minimum preferred depth.
2. The next biggest decision you’ll make in regards to an indoor-outdoor bar will be which style door or window you’ll use to cover the passthrough after last call. A qualified architect or building professional can narrow down which options will be most functional and cost-effective for your project.
This nifty bar-lounge hybrid in Sydney, Australia, makes use of a sliding glass track that’s tucked out of view in the photo. This design provides a whole lot of bang for your buck as it serves as bar, serving area, seating and even an auxiliary entry into the house (if you don’t mind some climbing and scooting).
This nifty bar-lounge hybrid in Sydney, Australia, makes use of a sliding glass track that’s tucked out of view in the photo. This design provides a whole lot of bang for your buck as it serves as bar, serving area, seating and even an auxiliary entry into the house (if you don’t mind some climbing and scooting).
3. Like all great bars, this one (seen in the background with two blue stools and a shuttered opening) has an enchanting story: The main room was built in 1957 using surplus materials from another building project the homeowners had completed on a nearby Bahamian cay. What started as a 20-by-20-foot single-room structure was expanded over the years into a laid-back family retreat complete with the shuttered bar. The shutters remind us that there was a time before the advent of plate glass when shutters were the way to secure our homes.
See the rest of this island home
See the rest of this island home
4. The breakfast bar you’ve already got can become an indoor-outdoor bar with the right kind of wall — namely, an accordion-style door that folds open to merge the kitchen with the patio, as seen here in Orange County, California.
5. If you click this photo and browse deeper into the project, you’ll find that this passthrough opens not to a patio but to a former alleyway converted into a garden room capped with a greenhouse roof. In some locales, you might be able to forgo a window altogether if the “outdoor” room is fully sheltered, but in a chillier climate like Philadelphia, home of the project shown here, some degree of enclosure will help you regulate the temperature.
6. Sometimes it’s not even necessary to frame a new window opening, which can be quite time-consuming since you’re removing a chunk of exterior wall. Instead, have your contractor mount a bar top just below a horizontally sliding window (or double-hung or even casement window after you remove any screens).
7. This garage-style door that Rice and Brown Architects installed for a New York client is another great option for creating an indoor-outdoor bar. As for how airtight and watertight this setup might be, the architects say the “bulb-type gasket at the bottom rail makes great contact with the countertop. The covered porch helps to keep water out as well.”
8. This bar in Cleveland, located inside the structure in the next photo, is completely covered by a roof and thus, strictly speaking, not indoor-outdoor.
But it still feels like an open-air patio bar thanks to the large Dutch door and two windows that fill the front of this converted single-car garage.
9. To better integrate this Los Angeles indoor-outdoor bar into the home’s exterior, the same shingle siding used on the exterior of the house covers the lower half of the outdoor portion of the bar, while the interior portion is covered in white paneling.
10. Maybe it was those Labor Day weekend blues that made my own father add an ever-expanding beach bar to our home on the Connecticut shoreline, but dozens of neighbors up and down the beach have flocked to the “Insanity Bar and Grill” every summer since. His first act as a freshly minted barkeep, even before the requisite Champagne-bottle christening, was to have a sign made bearing his new bar’s moniker. Likewise, this Dallas patio welcomes guests with its own sign, “Barley’s.”
Houzzers, we want to know: What would you name your bar?
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Houzzers, we want to know: What would you name your bar?
More
An Indoor-Outdoor Serving Bar Opens the Possibilities
Dream Spaces: 14 Fabulous Indoor-Outdoor Bathrooms