Home Coffee Bar Ideas To Elevate Your Kitchen

A home coffee bar can be both. It’s a practical addition to high-traffic kitchens, where grabbing a hot drink might normally mean leaning around someone who’s busy preparing food or feeding family members in order to retrieve the kettle. It’s also a fabulously focused area to retreat to, to indulge in your coffee customs.

Home Coffee Bar Ideas

A coffee machine does not a home coffee bar make. In fact, there are several elements that must come together to make the coffee bar aesthetic complete. 

Placement 

The question of where your coffee bar will exist is one of the most important. Like all things we interact with on a daily basis, the area you create should be practical and enjoyable. 

This means easy access and a level of comfort, with all the necessary tools and tastes at your fingertips. A few kitchen areas that fit the coffee-bar brief include:

An Alcove 

Why resign the alcove to a space for assorted kitchen and homeware when it can be a dedicated coffee station? Along with fitted shelves reserved for mugs and cups, this secluded section of the kitchen offers up the perfect opportunity to implement separate decor and lighting features to the rest of the kitchen.

Closet 

Similar to the alcove, a closet area or large larder, like the 500 traditional larder, can define a space as a specific coffee station. 

With shelves for crockery, compartments for bulk buy coffee supplies, and shelves for appliances and coffee preparation, you can create a coffee zone without the traditional countertop space.

Corner counter

There’s a reason the corner counter often hosts coffee making facilities. It’s away from the hustle and bustle of everyday meal prep and dining areas and the kitchen cabinets beneath are perfect for storing coffee essentials and extras such as coffee pods or a selection of flavoured syrups. 

Bartop space with seating

If you have a G-shaped kitchen peninsular, breakfast bar or any kitchen countertop with legroom underneath - perhaps one that used to house a washing machine - you could transform this area into your very own coffee bar with stools or other seating.

It’s a luxurious addition to the standard coffee station but highly practical for entertaining friends who pop by for a not-so-quick cup or leisurely mornings by yourself with a newspaper or magazine.

Standalone kitchen cabinet

A coffee station cabinet offers many possibilities - a disposal drawer for coffee grounds, a small fridge unit for milk and cream. You might also consider whether you want to plumb in a separate sink to make it a self-sufficient coffee space.

Moveable coffee station

A trolley, cart or portable cabinet is a great option if you don’t want to commit a fixed area of the kitchen to coffee needs alone.

A trolley can tuck away all your coffee supplies in baskets or on a shelf behind a curtain or “skirt”. You can also move it to your preferred seating area and gain access to power sockets around the kitchen.

Lighting 

Do you spring to life at the first sip or close your eyes, breathe in the coffee aroma and shut out the rest of the world until the entire cup is complete? Whatever your start to the day, lighting can make all the difference.

Use task lighting from under-shelf puck lights to get straight to work on your favourite blend in the morning. Or create a soft zone of light over your coffee station with pendant lighting options for a lowkey, ambient start or end to the day.

Appliances

Your choice of appliance can often play a part in where you need to set up your coffee station, so it’s a good idea to bear in mind whether you need access to multiple power sockets and plumbing. 

You might want immediate access to a sink or dedicated hot water tap, and space for a coffee machine, grinder, frother, radio or sound system, and even a small fridge.

Shelving

If you’re designing a fixed coffee station area, displaying your mugs, glasses, and coffee plates, as well as essentials like sugars, syrups and creamers, on open or floating shelves is a must.

Putting your coffee utensils on display immediately identifies the area by its function, no matter how far you switch up the decor with plants, artwork, or bespoke signage to match your style.

Pantry solution

While your shelving choice allows you to display your personal style, a cupboard or pantry solution lets you hide away less sightly things.

Conceal large consumables, such as big coffee bags, boxes of coffee pods, or cartons of long-life milk in deep drawers, shelves or pantry units. 

Decor

Whether you’re a fan of the Parisien cafe, urban coffee shop or cosy aesthetic, there are a number of design moves you can make to bring your coffee station ideas to life. Why not try:

• Warm wood fixtures and earthenware mugs for a rustic or homely style
• Marble worktops, gold accents and glassware displays for an upmarket look (and to serve up a variety of speciality coffees)
• Exposed brickwork or a mirrored backsplash for an urban coffee bar experience
• Metal fixtures, concrete worktops and the obligatory commercial-grade coffee machine for an industrial feel
• Trailing plants, artwork and mismatched crockery for an undone, bohemian style.