Farmhouse Coffee Bar with DIY floating shelf and mug rack

Tips on how to add a functional coffee bar to your kitchen even if you only have a small corner space, also tutorial on a DIY industrial floating shelf and hanging mug rack made with pipe hardware.

I don’t know about you but it’s a keep the coffee coming kind of Monday especially after time change weekend… so what a perfect time to officially introduce you to my new coffee bar in my kitchen!

 

Let’s back up first and just for fun here’s a before/when we moved in shot of the kitchen.

And here’s how it looked 2 years later.  

Oh, that’s such an encouragement to me and I hope it is to you too!  All those changes, as much as I wished they could, did NOT happen overnight.  In fact, it took over 18 months for all those changes to happen.  If you want to see more details and in between pictures check out all these posts:

• painted kitchen
• painted eat-in kitchen
• new flooring in kitchen
• complete how-to on how I painted the kitchen cabinets
• DIY painted/stained kitchen table and chairs

 

We love coffee in our house and I knew that little corner nook over by pantry would be the perfect spot to put a little cabinet and turn it into a coffee bar!  I don’t have a lot of counter space so getting the coffee maker off the counters, gaining some additional storage for dishes, and giving me a little spot to decorate seasonally was a big bonus! Only problem is that it was only 29 inches wide and everywhere I looked most consoles, cabinets, anything I looked at was 31 inches or wider.  I browsed marketplace, yard sales, measured every cabinet in Homegoods, Hobby Lobby, online sites and more with no luck.  So I decided that when I had time I would attempt to tackle building a farmhouse style 2 shelf unit.

Until late this summer I was shopping Hobby Lobby spring clearance which also included quite a few pieces of furniture and I happened to find one that measured 29 inches exactly!  I was shocked because I though I had measured every piece in there months ago.  And it was 65% off making it cost less than $80!  It came home with me and I couldn’t wait to complete the rest of the space.

I knew I wanted to create a floating type shelf above it with pipe hardware and I also wanted to be able to hang mugs somehow too.  I considered several different options for hanging mugs but then I came across this pipe bar with already attached hooks at Hobby Lobby as well.  It comes like this in the shelf area and is $19.99 but of course I picked up when it was 50% off making it only $9.99.  I did spray paint it with some oil rubbed bronze spray paint since my other pipe hardware was black to get it to match.

Then it was just cutting a board to length for the shelf.   I used a 2x8x8 board and cut 28 inches length for my shelf and then sanded and stained it with Rust-O-leum Dark Walnut stain.

For the shelf hardware I used plumbing pipes that you can find at any hardware store or you can buy several pieces at Hobby Lobby to cut the cost.  You can read more about creating shelf brackets with pipe pieces in this post. 

 

These are the pipe pieces you will need for each pipe bracket and each shelf requires 2 pipe brackets:

• 1 – black iron floor flange (1/2 inch)
• 1 – 1/2 inch iron cap
• 1 – pipe the length of the width of your board.  My board was 8 inches wide so I used a 8 inch by 1/2 inch pipe.
• screws

Once I had the pipe brackets and shelf installed I just screwed the mug hook rod into the bottom of the board.

It works perfectly in my small space!

I have just enough space for coffee grounds, sugar, and a creamer pitcher (which we use to refill the water) next to the coffee maker, space to hang mugs above, and space on the shelf to add seasonal or coffee themed decor.   The white dishes with the words are a brand called Rae Dunn which you may have seen all over Pinterest and Instagram.  I got hooked as well and have gradually collected a small collection of basic canisters and mugs that I loved the sayings.  That line is pretty inexpensive and can be found at TJMaxx, Homegoods, or Marshalls but is highly sought after so can be hard to find.

This little corner has now turned into quite a workhouse as it is used every morning and sometimes even throughout the day. 😉  It completes the room too filling that corner and adding some major function too.  I can’t wait to decorate it for seasons (maybe a cocoa bar theme for Christmas? :))

I had some Christmas money stashed away which I was going to use to buy all the materials to build something but for just a few dollars more I was able to buy something ready-made with doors, buy the pipe brackets, the mug hook rack, and then pull some decor from around the house to create this cute little coffee bar in our kitchen.

So if you have a little nook in your kitchen, eat-in kitchen, dining room or maybe just off the kitchen maybe add a little coffee or tea bar!

Here’s how I changed it out for fall – just some simple decor helps add some seasonal touches to my kitchen area.