Section Last entry September 15, 2026

Bar essentials: the working end of the counter

A jigger, a bar spoon and a hawthorne strainer laid out on an oak counter beside a folded bar towel, top down, soft window light from the left

A home bar is a small workspace with a social function bolted on, and almost every complaint about one comes down to reach. The bottle you use most is on the wrong shelf, the strainer is in the kitchen drawer, the ice is two rooms away, and the light is coming from behind your own head. None of that is solved by buying more equipment.

This section deals with the parts that decide how a counter behaves rather than how it looks: what actually gets picked up, what the light is doing to the bottles and to the faces opposite, how ice changes a drink after you have handed it over, and the handful of measurements that separate a counter people sit at from one they lean on for a minute and then leave.

On the shelf

The working file

Newest at the top. Each piece gives the numbers where numbers exist.

A hand holding a loaded watercolor brush above a half painted wooden bar sign on a workbench, a jar of water, a pencilled line of lettering and a roll of masking tape beside it, morning window light

Technique

September 15, 2026

Painting the sign over the bar

The board above a home bar is usually the last thing finished and the first thing a guest reads. It takes a wash and a steady line.

A tripod-mounted camera facing a wooden home bar with lit bottles on the shelf, the room in daylight, shot from the doorway

Field note

September 1, 2026

Photographing the bar you built

A small room flattens badly in photos. How to shoot the bar you built so it reads the way it looks.

A basement corner with a painted brick wall, a floor drain in the concrete, and a single exposed bulb, cool daylight from a small high window

Kit

August 15, 2026

The basement bar and the water below it

A basement bar is only as dry as the line under it. What to check before the counter, the shelf and the fridge go downstairs.

Six bar tools arranged in a row on a grey linen cloth, jigger, muddler, strainer, spoon, opener and knife, flat overhead shot in daylight

Kit

August 18, 2026

The six tools that actually earn their drawer space

Most home bars own twenty gadgets and reach for the same handful. Here is the handful, what each one replaces, and the three that can wait.

A back bar shelf lit from underneath by a warm strip, bottles glowing from the base, the wall behind left in shadow

Fittings

April 2, 2026

Back bar lighting without the glare

Light the bottles, not the faces. Strip position, colour temperature, and the one fixture that ruins every photograph taken at your bar.

Large clear ice cubes in a steel tray on a kitchen counter, backlit by a window so the light passes straight through them, water beading on the metal

Technique

January 13, 2026

Ice at home: big cubes, clear cubes, and when it matters

A big cube is not a style choice, it is a dilution rate. How to make clear ice in a normal freezer, and the drinks where ordinary cubes are the right answer.

Three wooden stools tucked under the overhang of a kitchen counter, seen from the side at seat height, morning light raking across the floor

Measurements

November 6, 2025

Stool height, counter height, and the gap between them

Three standard counter heights, the seat that belongs with each, and the knee gap that decides whether anyone stays sitting down.

Next to it on the shelf

What tends to come up next

Glassware Washing and storing glassware so the head survives Hosting A twelve person night on a six person table Bar games Darts at home: height, throw line, wall