Artwork for the bar

Just wanted to share some of the finishing touches I put on the bar project. We left off with me painting, stenciling, and styling a built-in bookshelf in the corner of our study, taking it from this:

to this:

I also wanted to add some art, and decided it was a good chance to do something with the wine and champagne corks I've been saving for more than a year now. I decided that I'd arrange them inside of a picture frame, sort of like a mat for the artwork inside. I bought a frame from Michael's (using a 50% off coupon), and then built a foundation for the corks using strips of posterboard. The idea was for the posterboard to sit right inside the frame and give me something to glue the corks onto so that they wouldn't be glued directly on top of the artwork. Here's a shot of the posterboard foundation I made:

Then I went to work laying out the corks in a pattern that seemed to work. After getting them all laid out, I then worked through them one by one, gluing them down using wood glue (hot glue would have dried too quickly -- it was important to be able to shift them around a bit during the process).

For the artwork, I found a bar-themed print I liked on Etsy (from TheWordShop) and ordered it in the color "Duck Egg" since I thought a bluey-green would look nice in the space. I cut a piece of posterboard so that it would just overlap with the back of the frame (so I could glue the posterboard to the frame around the edges), and used double-sided tape to secure the print to the posterboard. Then I used hot glue to attach the posterboard to the frame. Not exactly a process I'd recommend for a priceless piece of art, but under the circumstances it was just fine. Then I hung it on the wall using the hardware that the frame came with and two nails, and here it is:

On the other wall, I installed a small hook and hung something that I got Sam for his most recent birthday: it's a cheese plate made from a crushed Jack Daniels bottle. I found it at an arts market in New Orleans and thought that it would be fun.

(Please ignore the ugly thermostat...I'm thinking of painting it to disguise it maybe?)

So, with these two pieces added, I declare the bar project officially finished:

(Please also ignore the mess of cords under the bottom shelf...I've really got to find a better way to disguise those, though I think they're less noticeable in real life).

Here's a close-up of some of the items on the bar:

The teapot was a gift from my mom -- I wanted to be sure to display it somewhere in addition to using it, since the color and shape are just beautiful. The jigger (measuring cup for mixed drinks) and white and red stirrers we got in an amazing antique store during our trip to North Carolina. The things that look like metal stirrers are actually awesome metal straws that Sam's mom got me for Christmas. The Mr. Boston Bartender's Guide is a must-have that my dad got me, and the Wine Lover's Companion was a gift from a friend's mom. On the other shelves (which you can see in the zoomed out photo), I put some photos, a small enamel teapot my mom gave me, and some antique blue glass objects I've been collecting.