Another Keezer Build (mid-century modern/Ikea-inspired design).

I started building my keezer almost 2 years ago. It was primarily based on Jester369's keezer project. Mine was going to be slightly bigger with some storage space and the top would overhang like bar. I got it to work [pics here and here] and I've already served countless pints from it but it was just huge and unwieldy so I never got around to finishing it.

Fast forward to November of last year and SWMBO gave me the green light to upgrade our home entertainment center with the caveat that I finish the keezer/bar.

I completely re-thought the design, mainly getting inspiration from gxm's keezer and from this random keezer I ran across a long time ago. I started drawing it up in SketchUp and here's the design we agreed on


here's a detail sketch


on to the build...

plywood board and 2x4 framing attached to the wall for stability


heavy duty drawer slides can support up to 500 lbs.

the keezer is floating off the ground by about 4 inches.

staining the top panels


side panel installed and dry-fitting the front panel


The short list of things to do:

• Install top panels
• New beer lines and install tower
• Finish front panel and liquor cabinet
• wiring for fan and lighting
• ??????
• profit

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here's the final product as of 02.25.11

That's going to look great!

Thanks a lot jester. That means a lot coming from you!

looking forward to seeing this one play out. I REALLY like the 'drawer' part!

Is something wrong with the pictures? I don't seem to see any..

xsists said:

Is something wrong with the pictures? I don't seem to see any..

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I was wondering the samething... Hmmm..?!?!

xsists said:

Is something wrong with the pictures? I don't seem to see any..

Click to expand...

I think there have been problems with HBT's Gallery, so I put it on flickr. Is that better now?

seems to be a problem on HBT often I don't see photos members have uploaded to their gallery or profile. where are others can. I thought it might be a free membership vs paid membership

-=Jason=-

A4J - I love the drawer idea to pull the freezer out of the cabinet. I may steal this idea if SWMBO ever lets me move the freezer out of the garage and into the house.

As for the pictures. I have no problem seeing them since the thread was created. Earlier today, on a different thread, I did have problems seeing pictures. I logged out of HBT (something I never do), and loged back in and I saw the pictures I could not see before. It may be worth a try. I know it is not a free/paid thing as I have never been a paid member, and I have never had problems seeing pictures other than the one time I just referenced.

A4J said:

the keezer is floating off the ground by about 4 inches.

Click to expand...

All keezers do, because they are F#%ing MAGIC! (This is best read with a fake Scottish accent and a few pints inside you.)

Awesome build. Carry on. :rockin:

Looks nice. I suspect you'll have to remove that bookshelf, though.

*update*
hooked up all the electric stuff. everything's working according to plans.

dry-fitting the front face


and a preview of what the lighting will look like through the frosted glass door

looks awesome

-=jason=-

wow, nice!

That tower looks sweet!

have you filled it with kegs full of water or beer to see if that framing will behave itself under full load?

that is an amazing idea, i look forward to the finished product!

slakwhere said:

have you filled it with kegs full of water or beer to see if that framing will behave itself under full load?

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Not yet, but I've stood inside the keezer while my wife slid it back and forth on the glides. Smooth as butter.

A4J said:

Not yet, but I've stood inside the keezer while my wife slid it back and forth on the glides. Smooth as butter.

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wow! what'd those slides cost you?

$97 + tax and shipping.

i applaud you, sir. totally genius maneuver.

i'm curious how you plan to deal with the beer line, given that the tower is stationary but the freezer moves. does the freezer just have an open top and slide closed into a sealed position? or will you put the lid on the freezer and use a trunk to get the beer from the freezer to the tower?

Great job! I like the heavy duting sliding drawer and the shelving! Can't wait to see it finished.

slakwhere said:

does the freezer just have an open top and slide closed into a sealed position?

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this. I'll take a pic once everything is put together.

Here are a couple of detail pics of the drawer glides. As you can see, they're pretty beefy at about 1.5" high and the steel is about the thickness of a quarter.

and this is where I left of last night. I made the cutouts for the Love controller and a fan/light switch, and I've also stained it.

This is pretty bad ass... thinking I need to upgrade my keezer now.

Very nice design, and it looks like your execution is great too. I look forward to following the progress.

That's the most beautiful tower I've ever seen O_O

My only thought is that you could have put four casters on the bottom to avoid the pricy slides.

Bobby_M said:

My only thought is that you could have put four casters on the bottom to avoid the pricy slides.

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I had it on caster before and it just didn't roll easily on the carpeted floor.

Cacaman said:

That's the most beautiful tower I've ever seen O_O

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Thanks. I got it for an incredible price. It took a lot of elbow grease to get it all shiny and it does have the budweiser logo on it, but you can't beat the price.

Finally finished it. Here are some updated pics.





Here's a pic with the lights on. The lights in the keezer are tied to the lights in the media center. I can change the color with the push of the button and I can set it to party mode which flashes between the different lights.


I still need to add a drip tray and reconfigure the fan inside but it's done for now!

Beautiful!

A4J said:

Finally finished it. Here are some updated pics.

I still need to add a drip tray and reconfigure the fan inside but it's done for now!

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I can't see these new pics. I think I stumbled on something - pics with hyphens in the name are not viewable by many here. Could you try renaming them or reuploading with different names?

Thanks!

WOW, That turned out great. I really like how you got the same look of the cabinet next to it. Great job.

-TH- said:

I can't see these new pics. I think I stumbled on something - pics with hyphens in the name are not viewable by many here. Could you try renaming them or reuploading with different names?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I changed the name and the program still adds a hyphen. I uploaded it to flickr so hopefully you can see them now.

Im_Lars said:

WOW, That turned out great. I really like how you got the same look of the cabinet next to it. Great job.

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Thanks. That was the goal. They're not exactly the same color stain but close enough. The cabinet door on the keezer is from the same Ikea line as the door on the media center cabinet.

I was originally stain everything a dark color but when I was dry fitting the cabinet face, I liked the two-tone look so I just went with it.

Amazing!

I'm confused about the lidless chest freezer. Is there any type of seal?

What size freezer is that? It almost looks too small to be able to fit 5 kegs in it. Maybe its just the angle.

One of the most innovative keezers I've ever seen! Truly beautiful.









(waits quietly in corner for 'seal question' to be answered...)

IrregularPulse said:

I'm confused about the lidless chest freezer. Is there any type of seal?

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Yup, there is. This is a bad pic but hopefully it explains how I addressed that issue.

The top of the cabinet acts as the lid. I made a "collar" with insulation boards that extends below the top of the freezer which creates a pretty tight seal.

Talljake6110 said:

What size freezer is that? It almost looks too small to be able to fit 5 kegs in it. Maybe its just the angle.

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It's 8.9cf. I have a 20# CO2 bottle in there right now so I can only fit 4 5-gallon kegs + 1 3-gallon keg.