Help me perfect my bar plan

So my wife previously had a bichon frise dog (small, white, fluffy) that was her childhood dog. I was not the biggest fan of the dog but my wife loved it so it lived with us for the last almost three years after college.

Last week the dog was struck by a car and died. She was sick and ready for the end anyway, none-the-less, my wife was very sad.

We didn't think we would get a new dog for a long time. However, loneliness set in without a four legged friend around and she started looking for a new dog. A long story short, I am now the proud owner of these guys:


Both are Portuguese water dogs. Bubba is a five year old male, Adhara is an eight-week old puppy girl. I am super excited to have a dog (or two) around that I can identify with!!!

So where does this turn into a bar design thread...

We need a place to kennel these guys and we do not have a back hall or laundry room on the first floor of our house. So we were coming up with ideas, and I thought of putting them in some furniture to make it look nice and provide a usable space....

what kind of furniture though???







The bar would include two taps, a wine fridge, a small sink, and storage space for glasses etc. above the dogs. The dog kennels would be as shown and hidden from view most of the time.

I am thinking the kennel doors would be removable or slide-in so they could be removed during the day/when we are using the bar.

This needs to look really nice as it is in the main part of my house in the same room as the living room. The door is above the bar in the top view. I am thinking you would enter the house by a nice bar entertaining area. It has to look classy so you don't walk into my house and think "alcoholic" before you see anything else.

Please give me some feedback so this is the best design possible before I pitch the idea to Danika (my wife).

Cheers!

Justin

Well...if I were your dog's I'd definitely want the outside one as it appears to have more ventilation.

Unless the stool facing side is the side you were talking about being removable for when the dogs are in there.


Other than that I LOVE this idea

So more ventilation? That can be done....

Awesome idea! The only thing I might add is that you may want to make the "Crate" portion easily replaceable. You dont want to get all sorts of angry at the dogs when they destroy your awesome bar due to chewing/claws/normal ware and tear. I just dont want to see you have to take the whole thing apart to replace some damaged wood.

Just a thought. Wish my Great dane were small enough for this to work .... his crate currently takes up about 1/16 of the floor space in my basement.

Looks great from my end...I'll have my current GF (or as I like to refer to her as SW"thinks she"MBO) look at it as she is a animal rescuer and goes all crazy about things like this.

If she says its fine...I'd bet SPCA would do backflips over it.

cruelkix said:

Awesome idea! The only thing I might add is that you may want to make the "Crate" portion easily replaceable.

Click to expand...

This is a great idea. I can make the kennels removable, so they can be worked on/replaced.

This won't be build for a while, at least 6-8 months (probably longer). So the puppy won't be a puppy when it goes up. But it is a good idea to have the kennels be replaceable.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

This is a great idea. I can make the kennels removable, so they can be worked on/replaced.

This won't be build for a while, at least 6-8 months (probably longer). So the puppy won't be a puppy when it goes up. But it is a good idea to have the kennels be replaceable.

Click to expand...

yeah at least he won't be a puppy. Man puppies do a lot of dmamage! My dog is 3 years old and he ruins stuff just by being a dog. He's not a chewer, but he is 140 lbs which isn't helping out.

glad you are thinking about making them removable. I'm thinking you'll be happy you did. (Even if one of them has an "accident")

You could just make them big enough to insert an actual kennel and then keep the wood the way it is with wire kennel inside, or maybe just try to line the inside with a dog proof plastic of some sort. I'm thinking maybe add a tap for the dogs as well. Are the kennels just for sleeping in to secure them or is it a lounging space for them? Lastly, are those lederhosen?

Hophead75 said:

You could just make them big enough to insert an actual kennel and then keep the wood the way it is with wire kennel inside, or maybe just try to line the inside with a dog proof plastic of some sort. I'm thinking maybe add a tap for the dogs as well.

Click to expand...

I could do this, but I think I would be happier with them just sleeping in the nice boxes.

Are the kennels just for sleeping in to secure them or is it a lounging space for them?

Click to expand...

Sleep and lounge. There will be some nice pillows in there for them.

Lastly, are those lederhosen?

Click to expand...

Yes. Thanks for noticing.

Oh wait...I thought you wanted them to "crate" them while you were out

If they are just their sit in baskets then you probably wouldn't need the extra vents...unless the dogs wanted to see what was going on in the room...which they usually do.

These crates would be for, when we are out of the house during the day (shopping, meeting friends, etc.) and for sleeping in at night. They could also lounge in them whenever they wanted.

cruelkix said:

...Just a thought. Wish my Great dane were small enough for this to work ...

Click to expand...

At least the Great Dane is big enough to work the bar, although I suspose there would have to be some adaptation so he could pull you a pint when you get home.

cruelkix said:

Wish my Great dane were small enough for this to work .... his crate currently takes up about 1/16 of the floor space in my basement.

Click to expand...

You could make it work for any size dog, just change the size of the crate. BTW, I love danes. What color?

camiller said:

At least the Great Dane is big enough to work the bar, although I suspose there would have to be some adaptation so he could pull you a pint when you get home.

Click to expand...

I have thought about bottling a few beers just so he could bring me a few. I am going to buy him one of those hiking packs though without a doubt. That way when we go camping or im out in thr yard I can load up a few bottles and he can carry them around. I figure I feed him all the time. The least he could do is feed me (a few beers) every now and again.

Maybe if I could work out some sort of foot pedal for dispensing beer out of my keezer ..... I would probably end up with a drunk great Dane.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

You could make it work for any size dog, just change the size of the crate. BTW, I love danes. What color?

Click to expand...

His current crate is def taller than bar hieght. I would have to get some really tall bar stools.

He looks like this guy.... dog

You def have me thinking of ways to work it tho. In fact I will prob design something this weekend. It doesnt have to be as pretty as your as its in teh basement. But i'll try my best.

He is beautiful. Great dogs. I never had one but my neighbor growing up always had one or two.

I see most crates for danes are around 45"... sounds pretty perfect to me??? lol I am just egging you on.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

He is beautiful. Great dogs. I never had one but my neighbor growing up always had one or two.

I see most crates for danes are around 45"... sounds pretty perfect to me??? lol I am just egging you on.

Click to expand...

ha, no egging required. The second I saw this thread I was alreay pretty sold on doing it. I had just been looking at other keezer threads to see how to make mine prettier. I think a full out bar that has the dog cage worked into it would be pretty sweet. I think the wife will be happy with it too. Get the ugly dog cage and the ugly (she thinks) keezer into a more condensed, easier to lookat area. I think I'm going to work the server I have down there into it as well for like a entertainment/interent type deal. I mean what do you do while you are drinking besides read homebrewtalk anyway?

GF said it will definitely need the added ventilation...and loved the removable idea cause those dogs "even properly trained" will claw and chew on wood if confined for hours in it.


She also suggested extending that "vented" pattern around the whole bar to keep it uniform even if the non-vented areas only had a black paneling behind it so you didn't see the innards.


She might have suggested a detailed blueprint so someone could replicated it a home...but I'm going to say no on that one. I don't need anymore "projects"

Well BK, now you have done it. I went home and talked to the wife about building a bar in the basement and I am now signed up to redo the entire finished basement. Say good bye to the 80's wood paneling. She was cool with the bar idea tho. I'll expect you at my place next weekend at 8 a.m. to get started on dry wall. Don't forget your mask becuase you will be doing the compound sanding. See you soon. Beer is on me.

EDIT: OMG Post 100!!

haha. I am glad your wives like the idea! I haven't pitched it to Danika yet. I am going to mull over the design and make sure I am happy with it before showing it to her. I also want to know how much it will cost before I tell her about it.

I wont be working my Dog crate into it. Really we almost never use it now that he is fully trained and truth be told it really is just way to high. I'll start a seperate thread with some pictures so you can see what I'm talking about.

I will be working my Keezer into it tho. Which should be very cool.

Let me know how the sales pitch goes!

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

haha. I am glad your wives like the idea! I haven't pitched it to Danika yet. I am going to mull over the design and make sure I am happy with it before showing it to her. I also want to know how much it will cost before I tell her about it.

Click to expand...

You might consider also using some sort of insert as the base of the kennel portions...dogs tend to chew/drool/whatever and the results can be smelly over time. You will want a way to clean them easily for sanitary and/or odor reasons.

boyurboy said:

You might consider also using some sort of insert as the base of the kennel portions...dogs tend to chew/drool/whatever and the results can be smelly over time. You will want a way to clean them easily for sanitary and/or odor reasons.

Click to expand...

Yep. I was planning on using one of these in the bottom.



They are called dog crate trays. They are cheap and easy to clean.