What to do with an ugly brick bar?

[ToolGal]

Hi all,

I bought a 60s bungalow with a large "finished during the disco era" basement. Yep, they even had Disco LPs laying around... Anyway, there's a (real) brick bar, with a formica counter top, and my hubby has always yearned for a real BAR. He wants to keep it, I want to take a sledgehammer to it, and he's won. So... I wanted to find ideas for what to do with it. The bar and top are CURVED, believe it or not, so the formica top (that lovely brown fake-wood grain counter) won't be easy to replace with a standard counter. Can I paint the counter? Cover it with something? Can I stucco the brick? Any ideas are welcomed. The room's been primed white, I've replaced the flourescent lights with halogen pot lights, and I'm going to pull up the carpet and paint the plywood floor, then put a 13x9 Persian carpet over it. The colour for the wals was going to be a light butter yellow. Suggestions for the colours for the brick, counter top, floor....? Thanks!

[armataz]

quote:Originally posted by ToolGal

Hi all,

I bought a 60s bungalow with a large "finished during the disco era" basement. Yep, they even had Disco LPs laying around... Anyway, there's a (real) brick bar, with a formica counter top, and my hubby has always yearned for a real BAR. He wants to keep it, I want to take a sledgehammer to it, and he's won. So... I wanted to find ideas for what to do with it. The bar and top are CURVED, believe it or not, so the formica top (that lovely brown fake-wood grain counter) won't be easy to replace with a standard counter. Can I paint the counter? Cover it with something? Can I stucco the brick? Any ideas are welcomed. The room's been primed white, I've replaced the flourescent lights with halogen pot lights, and I'm going to pull up the carpet and paint the plywood floor, then put a 13x9 Persian carpet over it. The colour for the wals was going to be a light butter yellow. Suggestions for the colours for the brick, counter top, floor....? Thanks!

actualy you can re-do the formica on your counter top or have it done in a number of different finishes.
as for the brick?, how about using oak vaneer pannaling to cover it up?it will give it a classier look and warm up the room.TAZ


nuthing like being woken up at 12:AM to unstop some one elses toilet.

[grneyemc82]

I don't know if it's too late to give input, but I have a couple ideas. As for the countertop, you don't have to spend a lot of money to fix that problem. First, take a fine-grit sandpaper over the formica, just to roughen it up a bit...you don't need to sand through the pattern or anything like that. Then using "Kilz-2" brand water-based primer, you probably want to do two coats to prime over the counter. Then finish in a variety of ways. Something cool would be to use a spray finish, such as stone or hammered metal. You'd be surprised what the spray paint companies have come up with. THEN, do about 3-4 coats of a spray polyurethane sealer, and VOILA! Sounds like a lot, but when you're only spending $40 instead of $400, it suddenly becomes worth it.

As for the brick, I would personally take mortar and trowel it inbetween the bricks to even the surface. After it dries, I'd actually tile the bar, using small square tiles (maybe even mosaic tiles), and believe me...you will have the most interesting bar around!

[ToolGal]

Thanks for the suggestions. I ended up using Zinsser Odourless Primer (it sticks to ANYTHING) on the brick and the formica top, then used a pumpkin coloured paint on the top, then two coats of a copper translucent paint, and then a clear coating. On the brick, I painted it a paler version of the pumpkin on the walls, and it looks so much classier now. I put a halogen light above it too, to the bar is now spot-lighted!

Thanks again -- is there any place I can post a photo?

[admin]

ToolGal's Brick Bar:

Before:


After:


Looks great!

[ToolGal]

The wallpaper for the "accent wall" is still being put up in this photo, and the maple laminate flooring is in a pile in front of the bar -- that's the next step...

[handyandy]

What a dramatic difference! Looks great, ToolGal!