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DIY Coffee Bar Plans

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by
December 20, 2020
Zoe Hunt

This post is sponsored by Kreg Tool. It also contains affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link, I earn a teeny-tiny commission, but it won’t cost you a penny more)! Click here to read our full disclosure.

DIY coffee bar cabinet with shaker doors and drawer

Since we’ve become obsessed with building furniture, all of our holiday gifts have turned into custom pieces for family and friends. This years main gift was to create a small DIY coffee bar that still had lots of practical storage.

We kept the design simple, but that means it’ll always be classic and in style. These DIY coffee bar plans are complete with a full extension drawer and two shaker-style doors. The inside has plenty of room to store any coffee-making essentials.

Alright, let’s start DIYing! 

Tools

New to DIY? Check out our post on beginner woodworking tools to determine which tools to get!

What You’ll Need

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How to Make a Coffee Bar Cabinet

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side view of gray accent cabinet with wood top

STEP 1: MAKE TAPERED LEGS

First, cut your 2x2s down to 35.25″.  Then, set your miter saw to 7-degrees and taper the legs on two sides.

You can quickly and easily create a taper leg jig for your miter saw using scrap wood.

While you have your miter saw out, go ahead and cut the 3 – 1x2s that will be used for the front face. You can also cut your 1×8 down for the top.

making tapered legs on the miter saw

STEP 2: MAKE YOUR CUTS FOR THE CABINET

For any cuts from plywood, we’re going to be using the Kreg Accu-Cut and the Kreg Rip-Cut. Both of these will give us straight, clean, precision cuts using our circular saw.

The Kreg Rip-Cut allows you to make accurate, repeat cuts. This is great for ripping down pieces that need to be the exact same width, like both of the sides.

cutting plywood using Kreg Rip-Cut guide

You set the Rip-Cut up once and then you can make all of your cuts that need to be the same width.

Cut the following pieces based on the cut list above: sides, back, bottom, and shelf.

cutting plywood using Kreg Accu-Cut

STEP 3: ADD POCKET HOLES

Pocket holes are the foundation of most DIY furniture. Become a pocket hole pro in less than an hour in Pocket Holes: Explained.

Add pocket holes to your sides, back, bottom, and front frame pieces. All of the pieces will use the 3/4″ pocket hole setting.

The front frame pieces will each have 2 pocket holes on either end of the 1×2.

The bottom will have 3 pocket holes on the short ends of the board and 4 pocket holes on the longer ends.

drilling pocket holes with Kreg K4 system

The back will have 5 pocket holes on each of the long ends.

The sides will have 4 pocket holes on each of the long ends. Before drilling pocket holes on the sides, line up the sides with the back piece. Stagger the pocket hole placement between the sides and the back so that the screws don’t hit inside the leg.

Generally, you can space your pocket holes 2″ from each end and then 6″ apart.

STEP 4: ADD SIDE DETAILS

In order to make the sides of the cabinet look like they have a frame all the way around, we’re going to add 1x2s to the top and bottom of the face of the plywood sides.

To attach the 1x2s, add a generous amount of wood glue and position your 1x2s on the plywood. Clamp until dry.

attaching 1x2s to plywood

STEP 5: ASSEMBLE CABINET

Start by attaching the legs to the face frame. The top board should be in line with the top of the legs. The top of the middle board should be placed 5 7/8″ below the bottom of the top board. The bottom board should be placed 4″ from the bottom.

Now attach a back leg to each side piece using glue and 1.25″ Kreg screws. Then attach the sides to the front legs.

After attaching the sides, attach the back to the legs using 1.25″ Kreg screws and glue. The back should be flush with the back of the legs.

back of cabinet

Finally, attach the bottom. It should be nice and snug, so you might need a mallet to get it into place before securing with screws.

Attaching bottom of cabinet using pocket holes

STEP 6: DRILL FOR ADJUSTABLE SHELF

Using the Kreg shelf pin jig, add holes for 1-2 adjustable shelves. We opted for a single adjustable shelf in the middle of the cabinet.

Using Kreg Adjustable Shelf Pin Jig inside of cabinet

STEP 7: MAKE DOORS

For the doors, we opted for a classic shaker style. This time we decided to make shaker doors using a table saw, but you could also make shaker-style doors using pocket holes instead. It’s important to correctly measure for your cabinet doors rather than just following the cut list.

Making shaker cabinet doors

STEP 8: MAKE DRAWER

For the drawer, start by cutting down your wood according to the cut list.

Then, using the 3/4″ setting on your Kreg Jig, drill pocket holes along each edge of the bottom, 2 on each short end of the back, and 1 near the top front edge of the sides.

Apply edge banding to the top of the back and side pieces for a more polished look. While you have the edge banding out, you can also apply some to the front of the shelf.

Assemble the drawer box using 1.25″ plywood Kreg screws and glue.

DIY drawer box

STEP 9: MAKE TOP

For the top, attach the two 1×8 pieces together using glue and 1.25″ hardwood Kreg screws*, making sure to alternate your pocket holes between the two boards. 

*Note: if you are using pine or another softwood for the top instead of oak, you can use the 1.25″ softwood Kreg screws.

Making oak top using Kreg screws

STEP 10: PREP

Now that we have the individual pieces of the coffee bar done, it’s time to prep them for painting or staining by adding wood filler to any seams, filling visible pocket holes, and sanding.

If you are painting, you can also caulk the sides and door fronts for a more seamless look. Then be sure to prime before grabbing out your paint.

STEP 11: PAINT OR STAIN

In our case, we painted and stained. Everything except the top was painted with Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze in Satin.

The top was stained with Minwax Early American stain. But since we wanted the countertop to be water-resistant and food-safe, we finished it with 3 coats of Waterlox sealer.

Free download wood sizing cheatsheet

STEP 12: INSTALL DRAWER

Now it’s time to turn this thing into a cabinet with functioning drawers and doors. Installing doors, drawers, and hardware can be notoriously tricky, but luckily Kreg Tool has some incredibly helpful tools to make things easier.

For these finishing steps, we’ll be using the Kreg Hardware Installation Kit, which includes the Concealed Hinge Jig, the Cabinet Hardware Jig, and the Drawer Slide Jig (and two bonus clamps). Believe me when I say these jigs make install at least 100x easier (and more accurate).

Kreg Hardware Installation Kit

Let’s start with the drawer.

We’ll begin by installing the drawer slides to the inside of the cabinet, making sure that they are very level.

Unfortunately our cabinet isn’t deep enough to use the Drawer Slide Jig just yet, but it’ll come in handy for the next step.

Once the slides are attached to the inside, we’ll clamp the Drawer Slide Jigs to either side of the cabinet.

Then, place the cabinet box on top of the jigs, and pull out the drawer slides. The jig will hold your cabinet box in place as you screw the drawer slides to the box.

Installing drawer slides using Kreg Drawer Slide Jig

Now that we have the drawer slide hardware all installed, remove the drawer box from the cabinet and screw in your drawer front. Don’t put the drawer box back in just yet.

STEP 13: INSTALL DOORS

First we need to attach the hinges to the cabinet doors. To quickly and easily drill the holes for the concealed hinges, we grabbed our conceal hinge jig that’s included in the Kreg Hardware Installation Kit.

Using Kreg Concealed Hinge Jig on cabinet door

All you need to do is position the jig , attach the included drill bit and drill until the collar hits the jig. Then you can pre-drill for the hinge screws on either side.

Drilling pilot holes using Kreg Concealed Hinge Jig

Remove the jig, brush away the wood shavings, place your hinge and screw them into place.

To help support and position the doors, we clamped a board to the bottom of our cabinet and set the first door on top.

I held the door in place and flush against the cabinet while Andrew screwed the hinge into the cabinet from above. We repeated this with the second door.

Once you get your doors installed, you can add in your shelf.

STEP 14: INSTALL CABINET PULLS

We’ll start by marking the center of the drawer and adjusting the Cabinet Hardware Jig depth to 2.75″, which is half of our drawer height. Then adjust the jig to the size of your cabinet pulls. 

Line the jig up with center of the drawer and clamp it in place. You can clamp a board on the other side of the drawer front to help prevent the wood from splitting when you drill through it. 

using Kreg Hardware Installation Kit to drill holes for cabinet hardware

Drill through and remove the jig. Reset the depth of the jig to 1.25″ for the doors. Clamp the jig 1″ from the top of the door and drill your holes for the hardware. 

Screw in your hardware. 

STEP 15: ATTACH THE TOP

Now for the final step. Start by removing the drawer so that you will be able to screw in the top. 

Attaching right angle brackets in corners of cabinet carcase

Screw a right angle bracket in each corner of the cabinet, then center up the top. We had a 1/2″ overhang on each side. 

Screw in the top through each of the brackets then insert your drawer. 

DIY coffee cabinet plans text overlay on image of dark gray cabinet

There you have it! Now you know how to make your very own DIY coffee bar.

The beauty of these plans is that they are so versatile. You could also use these plans for an accent cabinet anywhere in your home!

DIY coffee bar with one door open to show the adjustable shelf
DIY coffee bar with drawer for k-cup storage
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