Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!
Due to today being the big drinking day, I thought I'd share our newest project we've completed:
The Barshed
So my husband got this crazy idea one day after I shared an interesting article to him about this person who was trying to sell their house that had a full bar in their backyard shed. Since we like to entertain and have parties, this idea immediately started churning around in our heads. Only problem- when we started thinking about doing this, it was in the midst of a snowstorm with over a foot of snow outside. So we sat indoors that weekend with snow all around our home, planning out everything we had to do and get before we could actually make it out to the shed to make it into our dream bar. This was our original plan (a friend has a mini pool table that he said if we wanted we could have it- we still haven't figured out if we do in fact want it in the long run. lol):
Our budget was small- I mean REALLY small, and we were determined to basically use what furniture we already had. Currently the one side of the seating is chairs (that will eventually go out to be used for seating around the firepit) but eventually we will move our red futon out there for a swanky seating area. As of right now, the futon has served us well as an addition sleeping area for when friends stay over, in addition to our spare bedroom's bed.
In the end, all we had to purchase for the Barshed was wood, spray paint, a really long outdoor extension cord, chalkboard paint, a box of stick-on tiles and screws. We had everything else. Eventually we will build an actual ladder for the lofted area because our step ladder is one rung too short, but that will have to wait till we can afford to do so.
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| Hubs took this horrid pic of me, while looking down from the loft as we were finishing things up in the shed. |
Once the weather cleared and we got the first hint of warmth, we took EVERYTHING out of the shed- boy was THAT an undertaking.We separated everything into piles- going up to the attic (which was labeled if it hadn't been labeled already), trash, back in the shed or mini shed, or sell.
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| Our lawn looked like a yard sale (or an episode of Horders) |
We then took a big trip to Home Depot and bought supplies. We put down a new wood floor in our mini shed (not shown)- which houses our bikes, lawn mower, our mini ghetto blow up pool and a few other odds and ends that needed easy access for lawn work. Eventually we will paint it, but for now, it will stay being its ugly rusty self.
We brought the piles of stuff that needed to go up in the attic and try to sell into the house and took trash items to our trash pile (luckily it was trash day the following day). I then spent the entire evening putting down the stick on tiles on the floor while rocking out to some Pandora radio (since hubs had a theater show he had to be in that night). Lucky for us, the previous owners had left us a whole box of the brown tiles (which they had put down about 30 tiles already in the corner for some reason). Sadly however, it was not enough to tile the entire shed with that type of tile, so we purchased the cheapest stick on tile they had that looked "wood like" because the kind that they left us we couldn't find anywhere. I call the lighter tile the "dance floor" portion of the shed. lol. Not the prettiest transition, but it will have to do, as we are cheapscapes.
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| This was all that the previous owners had put down of the tiles. |
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| After I put down the very last tile! I was so proud that I did this all by myself! |
We then worked on the actual bar itself. The front of the bar was an old table that was broken, so we took the legs off and attached it to the shed. We cut some wood for the bar top (and some stabilization legs), and painted it with a glossy coat of my favorite dark brownish red color. Once dry, we attached the bar top to the top.
We then moved in 2 metal racks (one was already in the shed, the other was previously in my craft room) and our old tv table (which is more storage behind the bar) and a spare side table that we no longer had room for in our living room (we have the matching table and coffee table still in our living room).
We put in chairs and some tv trays (which I covered with table cloths leftover from our wedding- I knew they'd come in handy!). We also painted 2 of our ice cream chairs silver and recovered with leftover fabric I had for additional seating. (the other 2 ice cream chairs were already white with white seats, so they are being used for our deck update- which I'll be sharing later).
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| the various seats of the chairs when given to me... |
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| two of the chairs got turned silver for the barshed |
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| and new seats! |
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| All shiny and new looking... |
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| The one seating area all done. |
Once all the furniture was in place, we brought out the booze, the glasses, and a boat load of cushions/pillows/blankets to fill the lofted area.
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| moving in the furniture |
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| the bar |
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| the booze |
We also attached 2 pieces of wood that we painted with chalkboard paint to the two doors to give us fun drawing time.
We installed an overhead light and a lamp for extra lighting in the shed during evening hours, and ran an indoor/outdoor extension cord to our outdoor plug (wthe power to the shed can also be completely turned off from our kitchen, luckily). We don't plan on keeping things running year around out there, so that worked out well (the previous owners had done that too- they had drilled a hole in the floor and had an old extension cord already there- which we replaced with our new one).
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| testing out the lights (before I even put the floor in, now that I think about it). |
Lastly, we lit the way with some dollar store yard lights and LED tea lights in mason jars. Hubs also added a hook and bungie cord, to keep the door shut from the inside.
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| This photo was super dark- sorry for the grainy photo- only way to show the lights and the actual shed was to try and brighten it , though looks like snow because this photo stinks so much. lol |
It isn't the absolute prettiest thing, but when your budget is very minimal- you have to pick and choose what is necessary. Eventually we will work on making it more snazzy, but for now it fits our needs.
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| We actually polled our friends as to what we should name it, and Barshed stood out as the favorite. lol |
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The finished Barshed
Our friends came over Saturday to celebrate the grand opening of "The Barshed" and to celebrate St. Patrick's Day early, and we had a blast! As the night progressed, we turned on our little space heater to keep warm, but once more people came, it was nice and toasty! I'm looking forward to opening the doors wide during the summer, when we can enjoy our deck, yard games, and mini pool, as well as the Barshed.
Have a great St. Patrick's Day and get your drink on! For those non-drinkers, enjoy a good hearty Irish meal (like we plan to).
-M
