How to Make Your Dream Home Bar a Reality

What home bartender hasn’t dreamed of creating their own personal bar? A unique space beyond a kitchen counter or a bar cart where they can entertain friends, proudly display their liquor collection, and show off their skills behind the stick. If you have space, whether it be an unused garage or a walk-in closet, and some DIY skills (plus a healthy dose of initiative, money, and time), you may be able to make your next-level home bar dreams come true, just like Darren and Leslie Mark of Fairway, Kansas.

After a decade of planning, designing, building, and hand-selecting decor, the Marks transformed their basement into Ruby’s Lagoon. Today, their 16-by-16-underground cavern features a hand-built coral wall, a rippling pool-like stainless steel ceiling, and bubbling portholes. But how does something this elaborate go from dream to reality?

Commit to a Theme

One visit to Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco more than a decade ago sealed the deal for Darren, owner of a video content agency, to build his own tropical bar. “The aesthetic felt oddly sentimental, and the drinks were made with balance and restraint,” he says. When he broached the subject with his interior designer wife, Leslie, who had grown up around the corner from the Mai Kai in Ft. Lauderdale, she was all in.

As someone with a lifelong fascination with mermaids, Leslie decided to design the bar as a pirate ship that wrecked in Neverland’s Mermaid Lagoon. “I drew a lot of inspiration from Mary Blair’s concept art for Disney’s Peter Pan,” she says. “Her use of color is so vivid and moody. You just want to swim in those drawings.”

When envisioning the theme in the room, she considered how to tell its story to everyone who walked in. “Ask yourself, ‘What are the colors, textures, and icons of that theme?’ ” she advises. Having a well-planned layout with consideration to the dimensions of the room and its functionality are crucial because, in a heavily themed bar, too much of everything can create a claustrophobic feel. “Leave some negative space in there to move around,” she says.

Visit Bars for Inspiration

Having long admired Polynesian decor, Leslie sought to replicate its immersive quality. “[Mai Kai] had windows that looked out at a tiny jungle courtyard—really just a giant window box masking the parking lot view—that had water constantly running down the glass like it was raining,” she recalls. “I was inspired by just how maxed-out the whole place was. There wasn’t a single square inch of the Mai Kai that wasn’t perfectly themed and layered with texture.”

For further inspiration, the couple made it a mission to visit tropical bars wherever they traveled, taking copious notes and photos. Their glass float lighting installation is a nod to False Idol‘s ceiling, while a display at Latitude 29 in New Orleans inspired their decorative mug cabinet. From Strong Water in Anaheim, they were inspired to paint the seams of their wood-clad walls black so they appeared layered with tar. 

Go Big (and Stay Home)

“Darren and I are both ‘go big, or go home’ people, so when we decided to create a home bar, there was no question that it would be of the quality we’d come to expect from great commercial bars,” says Leslie. Ruby’s features many examples of that mantra, such as the hand-painted mermaid figurehead and the metallic mix epoxy layered on the floor to resemble a sandbar. But the handmade coral reef wall elevates the room to that next level. “There’s a lot about the bar that makes me feel like I’m underwater,” says Darren. “But the texture and dimensions of the reef wall seals the deal for me. It hits the bull’s-eye of escapism, which is the promise of the best tiki bars.”

Leslie set about building the coral reef wall after watching a YouTube tutorial in which a man made short work of building a faux rock wall from concrete. But what looked easy in the video turned out to be the most difficult design element of the bar. “It was one of those projects that I regretted starting five minutes into it,” she says. “There might be some tears mixed into the mortar.” Fortunately, after a few hours of working with 600 pounds of concrete around a chicken wire substrate, she got the hang of it and the project turned fun. To christen the piece, they had their 6-year-old son press his fingers into the wet concrete. “Building that beast became a memory I’ll treasure forever,” Leslie says.

Level Up the Barware

As a home bartender, you probably already have your collection of go-to bottles. But with a dedicated space for mixing drinks, you can expand your booze collection further. “I look at the bottles as a timeline that reflects what I’ve loved at different points throughout my journey,” says Darren, who always hunts for bottles during his travels and has an enviable collection of Chartreuse.

However, he adds that while it’s easy to get caught up in amassing an inventory of rarities and high-end labels, “my version of next-level starts with good ice, homemade syrups, and an interesting variety of glassware.” Even though you’re not making drinks for paying customers, consider details like clear ice, house-made syrups, and unique glasses. “Those three things elevate the experience unlike any other element, and it’s the quickest path toward creating the feeling of being at a professional bar,” he says.

Stick to a Budget

Usually cost is what stops many from building a home bar. And once you start, it’s easy to let the expenses get away from you. By having a defined budget the Marks were able to prioritize design elements. Ruby’s may not have the animatronic mermaid figurehead that was on Leslie’s home bar wishlist, but, she says, “I don’t feel like we compromised, and I’m thrilled with our result. A good budget will do that for you.”

The theme of Ruby’s Lagoon: A pirate shipwreck at Neverland’s Mermaid Lagoon.

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