Nicole Webster and Natalia Stawecki, co-creative directors of EM Design Studio, conceived a sleek, tucked-away bar, dubbed The Speakeasy, for homeowners in Toronto. The space was imagined as a private lair that feels separate from the active family life in the rest of the house.
“Hidden behind a secret bookcase door, our vision for The Speakeasy was to create an intimate, indulgent escape,” Webster says, pointing to the palette of deep burgundy tones, the warm wood paneling and the creamy velvets, all chosen to conjure a sultry atmosphere.
Here, she adds, the adults in the home “can unwind and lose themselves in evocative conversation over a cup of tea or a chilled martini — extra olives, of course.”
The furnishings and finishes reinforce the sense of enclosure and craft. StudioArt leather panels clad the walls, and Park Place barstools by Man of Parts in black soft-touch metal and rosewater leather stand in a row, ready to accommodate imbibers.
Champagne-anodized wall lights by Ross Gardam cast a soft glow across the counter, while a polished-bronze lamp by Henry Wilson adds sculptural weight. Nearby, Sainte 21 and Sainte 23 pendants by Lambert et Fils slice through the airspace above a custom velvet sofa console.
For Stawecki, the bar’s role extends well beyond entertaining. “More than a place for drinks, it’s an intimate retreat where life slows down,” she says. “Imagine a space where you can curl up with an incredible book, share quiet holiday plans with someone special or sink into a sofa and let your mind wander to future dreams.”
Marie-Christine McNally took an old carriage house in Sands Point, Long Island, and reworked it into a weekend and holiday retreat for a New York City family. The interiors are designed to flex from low-key afternoons to vivacious evenings spent together.
“This bar and hang-out room,” McNally says, “bridges the game room and the theater and offers plenty of flexible space for whatever activities might ensue.”
Custom oak cabinetry and a marble countertop establish a sense of continuity with the home’s more formal areas, while Pierre Paulin Tongue chairs, Turnstyle leather pulls and a Waterworks brass gooseneck faucet keep the vibe informal.
A Restoration Hardware flatweave rug provides softness underfoot, while shelves stocked with colored glassware, candy and snacks signal that this is a space meant to be enjoyed by all.
“With teen and tween kids,” McNally says, “the homeowners wanted to create a space where everyone could hang together, with lots of fun entertainment options.”
Melissa Lee, of the firm Bespoke Only, drew on the stripped-back clarity of Scandinavian modernism when designing a lake house in Southbury, Connecticut. Conceived as a place to step away from city life, the Cape Cod–style home sits quietly among the trees, with interiors crafted to encourage wandering thoughts, unhurried mornings and relaxed gatherings.
Rather than situating the bar out of sight, Lee positioned it front and center at the entry, where it announces itself immediately. Located on the lower level, the moody-blue room opens directly to the outdoors, with a firepit nearby and a trail that meanders to a private dock on the water.
Bluestone flooring grounds the space, while a reflective tin ceiling introduces old-timey ornamentation above. Furnishings include HAY stools, a Dash & Albert runner and Norr11 chairs. Lighting is provided by Audo globe pendants at the front, a Visual Comfort sconce above the shoe bench and Louis Poulsen’s famous tiered fixtures in the game room beyond.
“We like to approach home-bar design by considering how the property is used, where the bar sits within the home and how the surrounding spaces connect and flow,” Lee says. “Just behind it, the game room is conceived as a richer, more playful space, creating a slightly whimsical atmosphere.”
Austin-based designer Christina Cole Abboud outfitted an Encino, California, house with tailored lines, natural textures and decisive hits of color. Each room balances these features, including the study, where Abboud carved out a sophisticated bar nook whose materials do the talking.
A slab of green-and-white Fantastico marble rises behind steel floating shelves, providing a a swirl of energy, and white-oak cabinets provide discrete storage underneath the counter.
“We achieved high visual impact with a graphic stone, and tension with the pairing of heavy and light elements,” Cole says. A trio of gunmetal can lights by Hans Verstuyft illuminate the scene, and an unlacquered brass faucet by Studio Ore brings in a warmer note.
“There is a mix of contemporary and traditional elements,” the designer adds, “which is consistent with the approach for the home’s design and a trademark of our work.”
For a family of six, Bruce Fox converted a former Boy Scout camp outside Chicago into a relaxed homestead for downtime and togetherness. Original structures were reassigned new roles, with the dining hall becoming a great room and the former craft lodge reimagined as a game room, all while preserving the spirit of an early-20th-century lakeside compound.
“My role was to honor that vision without slipping into anything too themed,” Fox says. Designed with Liederbach & Graham Architects, a full-size bar anchors one side of the game room and encourages gathering before dinner or settling in for an evening of fun.
“Everything in the room feels collected rather than newly furnished,” adds Fox.
There are 19th-century walnut barstools from East Meets West Antiques; a late-19th-century Persian kilim from Peter Pap; a 1930s wrought-iron chandelier; round tables, also from the 1930s, paired with 1940s French dining fauteuils; even a vintage arcade machine — all within a framework of reclaimed timber that honors the lodge’s history.
“In the end, a bar should create a moment,” Fox explains, “a place where guests feel looked after and where the host can enjoy the ritual just as much as whatever ends up in the glass.”
A family of five who had traded city life in San Antonio for the quieter pace of Fredericksburg, Texas, worked with Melissa Morgan, of M Interiors, to transform their new home into the haven they were seeking.
The property included a ramshackled 1852 dogtrot cabin, which she restored as a guesthouse connected to the main residence by a breezeway. Within the cabin’s common area, Morgan created a drinks corner that encapsulates the cabin’s rustic character.
“I’m a big believer in setting up bars in clients’ homes,” Morgan says. “It’s a wonderful way to host your guests, and it always looks great.”
Here, an antique inlaid German commode serves as the bar itself, accessorized by a Staffordshire lamp, folksy Pierre Frey drapery and an antique carved-wood mirror.
“The most important thing about designing a bar is to incorporate interesting antique or vintage finds,” the designer notes. “Search for unusual antique bar utensils, lamps, a large assortment of items needed to make a variety of cocktails, linen cocktail napkins and interesting trays or bowls.”
For a young couple moving in together for the first time, designer Darren Jett devised a cutting-edge Brooklyn apartment with big colors, funky forms and a deep bench of vintage finds. The goal was to sidestep the familiar and build a home that felt personal rather than pulled from the IKEA catalogue.
In the dining-and-drinks zone, a custom table with a wooden base and blue marble top is designed so each guest has a niche to pull up to. French swivel chairs from the ’70s are upholstered in a cayenne-red Maharam wool, their warmth playing off the cool stone.
“We wanted to keep going back in time,” he says of the furniture arrangement. “So, after the new table and 1970s chairs, there’s a 1930s Italian Art Deco bar cabinet with inlaid wood flamingoes by Luigi Scremin. It’s my favorite piece.”
For Jett, any design project worth its salt ought to be conceived as a total work of art. “Interiors should transport people,” he says, “which only happens if you and the client have a vision and commit to it.”
In a color-filled house in Charlotte, North Carolina, designer Barrie Benson collaborated with architect Perry Poole to carve out a Hollywood Regency–style bar nook that leans into bold hues and striking contrasts.
A stark white countertop and bright blue cabinets with brass pulls set the tone. Meanwhile, Benson points out, “DeGournay hand-painted wallpaper is juxtaposed with custom shelving inspired by mid-century French design.”
The space was conceived by the duo to emphasize personality and create a sense of belonging.
Fine barware and top-shelf liquor mingle with homemade infusions stored in canning jars, making this a place, Benson says, “where champagne, whiskey and moonshine all feel right at home.”
Gil Walsh kept the interiors spacious and modern within a 5,000-square-foot duplex overlooking UN Plaza. That way, the focus would remain on the fantastic art collection, bespoke millwork and expansive views of Manhattan’s skyline.
“My vision for the bar was one of refined beauty highlighted by sophisticated design details and elegant craftsmanship,” says Walsh.
Unexpected architectural elements include a gold-leaf bracelet that wraps the crown molding, nodding to Art Deco design, and rift-sawn oak paneling arranged in a checkerboard pattern behind the bar. A J. Robert Scott chrome lamp provides the finishing note and reinforces the Art Deco influence.
The work on paper, discovered by the client at an art market, brings a personal note to the room, and a classical bust adds historicity.
“Designing a home bar for clients,” Walsh says, “is a wonderful opportunity to create a setting where they can gather, entertain and truly enjoy their space with a lovely drink in hand.”
Tasked with restoring and refreshing the clients’ circa 1910 bungalow in Venice Beach, California, Jeff Andrews rose to the challenge. In creating this funky bar area, its relatively small size didn’t deter him from going big and bold.
For inspiration, he looked to a longstanding Hollywood hangout: “The palm pattern, by CW Stockwell, is the actual wallpaper used at the Beverly Hills Hotel,” Andrews says.
For their assigned space in the Sotheby’s Show House, the Daun Curry Design Studio team took their cue from the Jean-Pierre Cassigneul portrait.
Its sensuality and warm palette are echoed in the Vladimir Kagan sofa, with a counterpoint provided by the funky Judy Kensley McKie baboon sculpture, which serves as a fully functional bar, and the stark Ed Ruscha painting.
In designing this ultracontemporary Hamptons bar, Kelly Behun discovered her muse in an unusual spot: the neighboring bowling alley.
“The wallpaper around the alley is inspired by French artist Jean Dubuffet’s Chambre au lit sous l’arbre,” she explains, “a remarkable sculptural room that had a strong effect on me from the moment I saw it. It was nice to create this little homage to his genius.”
This basement-level bar on Martha’s Vineyard “was meant to feel like a cross between a men’s club, a speakeasy and a Soho loft,” says its designer, Heather Wells.
It may look like an old-school haunt, but all the furnishings, including the Restoration Hardware chandelier and the Bright Group stool, are contemporary finds.
In decorating her own Calabasas, California, home, Lisa Queen enlisted the help of her daughter and business partner, Sara. “Our design intention for the entire home,” says Sara, “was to use color to create spaces within spaces, which is a time-honored Christopher Alexander design technique.”
Setting the color scheme in the bar and game room is an enormous floral painting by a 20th-century American folk artist. That work is just one of the space’s vintage treasures, which also include the 1970s metal bar cart.
The drink table next to it is a sort of customized readymade. “The base is a scrap piece of molding Lisa found in the early 1990s,” explains Sara. “And she had her friend the artist Melissa Koch handcraft a mosaic-tile top for it.”
For this Chicago billiards room, Sasha Adler‘s goal was cozy yet sophisticated. An abundance of walnut creates warmth, enhanced by subtle design details like the navy suede upholstery just below the ceiling and the custom charcoal-gray felt on the pool table.
And the sophistication? That’s conveyed by the pair of matching vintage metal pendant lights from 1stDibs.
Tiffany Duggan designed this bar area for clients who “were keen to create a moodier evening space that added an extra dimension to their otherwise light and airy Hertfordshire home,” the designer says. “We chose a tone-on-tone blue palette and played with contrasting textures.”
Bright accents are provided by the pineapple table lamp and lantern, both vintage.
“The client wanted a bar that didn’t look like a bar, so we found this antique Gio Ponti cabinet and changed the use,” says Peter Mikic, describing this West London space.
Other star pieces include an Anish Kapoor dot on the wall and the duck-legs table, which the client already owned.
This Dubai bar by Alix Lawson is infused with a spectrum of neutral tones recalling the surrounding desert. Except for the Oluce table lamps and rattan tables, the furniture is all custom designed.
“To create the clean and fresh yet warm look, I layered tone on tone with the stone, veneer and fabrics,” says Lawson. “The pops of color come from the palms and the poufs.”
In designing this Palm Beach, Australia, hideaway bar, Blainey North looked to distant continents and times, borrowing abstracted forms, colors and straight lines from the Dutch De Stijl movement, and spicing them with the glamour and ultracool of America icon Frank Sinatra.
“The client wanted a space that had a true bar ambience in their Washington, DC, home,” says Mona Hajj.
“That gave me the idea of creating a moody, comfortable, inviting lounge space.” She pulled it off with the aid of pieces like the Italian crystal chandelier, 19th-century French bar doors and, of course, the 1930s Art Deco French bar.
Ed Godrich and Rupert Hunt transformed a former farm on the Spanish island of Ibiza into a sophisticated oasis. In the living room, the designers fashioned a bar out of pieces of church furniture.
Keeping in theme, Godrich and Hunt arranged a collection of vintage Playboy covers in a cross formation.
An abstract painting by Michel Cadoret hangs over a Georgian mahogany console table that serves as a bar, visually dividing the space between the living and dining rooms in a Manhattan home by Nick Olsen.
The console includes a counterpoise lamp in polished nickel, a Burmese tray and a mercury-glass vase.
Sara Story sought to converge Asian and Art Deco style in the rooms of a Singapore penthouse.
Carlton House Restoration created the lacquered-wood bar with brass and marble inlay, whose sleek lines are accentuated by Powell & Bonnell’s Alto stools. A pair of Le Tre Streghe pendants hangs above the bar.
Maddux Creative converted the garage of a London Mews house into a wine cellar and tasting room.
The designers covered the garage door with a wall of vintage wine boxes, some of which Maddux sourced from a few favorite sommeliers, who saved their best crates.
Topped with the homeowner’s barware collection, a silver serving cart pops against the midnight blue walls of an Austin dining room by Jan Showers.
In this Paris home, Isabelle Stanislas Architecture had to create a multiuse area that would function as a kitchen, bar and gathering place for friends and family.
The space includes a Boffi stainless-steel island and custom Provintech wine cabinet.
Amy Lau chose a vintage Florence Knoll wall-hung bar for the foyer of this open-plan home in Upstate New York.
The pair of benches are by Edward Wormley for Dunbar, purchased from Mark Frisman, and the mirror comes from the Amy Lau Studio Four Season collection.
Jean Royère Yoyo stools are arranged around the bar of this Kligerman Architecture–designed Park Avenue apartment in New York City.
Yellow #5 by Carole Pierce hangs above an antique Swedish console table with stone top in the dining room of a Normandy-style mansion designed by Tucker & Marks for the 2010 San Francisco Showcase.
A cocktail tray sits between a bronze lamp sits and a set of silver bar accessories.
On Manhattan’s Upper East Side, a townhouse by Kirsten Kelli features a mahogany bar, where an Art Deco mirror hangs over the lapis-blue marble countertop.
To the left of the sink is an antique Russian samovar, and the blue decanter on the right was a gift from the Dallas Cowboys.
The master bedroom of a Long Island, New York, beach house by Alexandra Loew features a 1920s Swedish secretary by Erik Chambert, which was retrofitted with a Sub-Zero fridge and freezer drawers.
Doors on the top half of the secretary open up to reveal rows of glasses and a Nespresso machine, alongside pottery by Arne Bang from Freeforms.
For the the dining room of a previous Hamptons Designer Showhouse, the Mendelson Group brought in a 1960s cerused bar cart, which includes a double-sided drawer and flip top.
The cart sits below the wood sculpture c.16, 1978, by Gunnar Theel.
A custom Lalique bar in the dining room of a London villa by Argent Design features a bespoke tabu harewood veneer, custom-etched Venetian glass panels with metalwork detailing and a smoked black onyx bar top with floating inlay onyx shelves.
https://www.1stdibs.com/photo/def-def-oakland-ca/362853
A console cabinet and mirror comprise the simple, streamlined bar area of an Oakland home by Geremia Design.
In the living room of a West Village apartment by Katie Ridder, the bar unit features Stark‘s China Lack wallpaper.
The bar area of this Amagansett, New York, beach house by Vaughn Miller Studio is located in the foyer, and it’s composed of an ebonized wood chest of drawers with a sterling-silver tray and bar accessories, plus bronze and metal statues and decorative objects acquired at the Brimfield Antique Show.
In this Hamptons home by Timothy Godbold, a nook under the stairs was converted into a bar, which features custom open shelving. The leather and glass accessories from The Future Perfect, and the spiky objects are from Towne Palm Springs.
