How to Make the Perfect Home Bar: Cabinet, Kit and Bottles

A home bar is not a wall of spirits nobody touches. It is a small, well chosen set of bottles, the right glassware and somewhere to keep it all that does not look like a cardboard box behind the sofa.

Start with the furniture, because that decides everything else. Then buy bottles for the three or four drinks you genuinely make, not the hundred you could.

Honest note: we design and print our cards, badges, prints and party decorations in the UK. The drinks cabinet and the cocktail machine are recommendations from elsewhere.

Start with the cabinet

• A proper drinks cabinet with drawers keeps bottles upright, tools hidden and the top clear to work on. A black bar cabinet with two drawers is the classic living room answer - bottles behind doors, shakers and strainers in the drawers, and a surface at the right height for pouring.
• Measure the tallest bottle you own before buying. Gin bottles are often taller than the shelf.
• Doors matter: an open shelf unit looks great for a week and dusty forever after.
• Put it away from the radiator and out of direct sun - both wreck vermouth and liqueurs.
• Leave 60cm of clear worktop. A bar with nowhere to build a drink is just storage.

The bottles worth owning

• Start with eight: gin, vodka, a white rum, a bourbon, a blended scotch, tequila, sweet vermouth and a triple sec.
• Add dry vermouth and Campari and you can make almost every classic anyone will ask for.
• Buy vermouth in small bottles and keep it in the fridge - it is wine and it goes off.
• Two good tonics, soda water and ginger beer cover the long drinks.
• Angostura bitters is the cheapest bottle on the shelf and the one that makes drinks taste finished.

Kit and glassware

• An automatic cocktail making machine for the nights you are hosting. An automatic cocktail making machine mixes a measured drink at the push of a button, so nobody has to stand behind a table with a jigger all night. It takes up about the same worktop space as a kettle and means guests can serve themselves while the host actually talks to people.
• Manual kit: a shaker, a jigger, a bar spoon, a strainer and a decent knife. That is the whole list.
• Glassware: six rocks, six highball, four coupes. Anything more is showing off.
• A big ice tray for single large cubes - small ice waters a drink down in minutes.
• A cheap citrus press earns its place within a fortnight.

Making it look like a bar

• One warm lamp on or above the cabinet. Overhead light kills the whole effect.
• A framed print above it to anchor the corner - Shop the range
• A candle lit on the cabinet top when guests are over - Shop the range
• A small tray to corral the bottles you use daily.
• Coasters that actually match, kept in the top drawer.

Three drinks to master first

• A negroni: equal gin, Campari and sweet vermouth, stirred over ice, orange peel.
• An old fashioned: bourbon, a sugar cube, two dashes of bitters, one large ice cube.
• A margarita: two tequila, one triple sec, one fresh lime. Salt only half the rim.
• Learn these three properly and you will never be stuck for what to offer.
• Write them on a card inside the cabinet door for when you have had one already.

Home bar gifts and finishing touches

• A card for whoever is moving into the new place with the bar - Shop the range
• Pin badges as a stocking filler for the cocktail obsessive - Shop the range
• Garden bar ideas - Read the guide
• 40th birthday party ideas at home - Read the guide
• Christmas drinks party ideas - Read the guide

Shop greetings cards

How to write it so it lands

• Measure your tallest bottle before buying a cabinet.
• Eight bottles beats twenty.
• Big ice cubes, warm lamp, clear worktop.

Where to shop next

• Party items
• Greetings cards
• Pin badges
• Funny wall art
• Scented soy candles
• Eurovision party ideas
• Garden bar ideas for a British shed
• 40th birthday party ideas at home
• Christmas drinks party ideas
• Summer garden party ideas
• How to host a murder mystery dinner party
• Party essentials: drinks kit, masks and candles
• 40th birthday party ideas
• 40th birthday party games
• Dinner party games for adults
• Alternative New Year's Eve ideas
• How to run a pub quiz at home
• Planning the party? Birthday party ideas
• How to make a balloon arch
• Photo booth prop ideas
• Pin badges
• All guides

Frequently asked questions

What do you need for a perfect home bar?

A cabinet with doors and drawers, around eight core spirits, a shaker, jigger, bar spoon and strainer, three types of glass, good ice and a couple of mixers. Everything after that is preference.

What is the best furniture for a home bar?

A drinks cabinet with drawers works best in a living room: bottles stay upright and out of the light, tools hide in the drawers, and the top gives you a surface at the right height to build a drink on.

Which spirits should you buy first?

Gin, vodka, white rum, bourbon, blended scotch, tequila, sweet vermouth and triple sec. Add Angostura bitters and you can make most classic cocktails anyone will ask for.

Is a cocktail machine worth it at home?

If you host regularly, yes - it measures and mixes at the push of a button so guests can serve themselves and you are not stuck behind the cabinet all night. For one quiet drink, a jigger and a shaker is quicker.

Do you make the drinks cabinet or the cocktail machine?

No. We design and print greetings cards, enamel pin badges, prints, candles and party decorations in the UK. The cabinet and the cocktail machine are recommendations from elsewhere - only the things linked to our own shop are ours.