We did ours DIY and selected cabinets from IKEA. The quality is quite good, pricing was reasonable but the primary reason is that the IKEA cabinets do not go to the floor. They sell metal legs, but we built our toe kick from pressure treated wood. Personally, I just didn't want particle board or untreated wood in contact with the basement floor in the event of water.

From a link on "My Page" are photos of our basement and bar and captions with each photo provide details. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Just a little food for thought, my DH and I got a bid from Home Depot for mid range cabinets in maple for my kitchen and their bid was $9200.00. Then just for comparison we got a bid from a custom cabinet maker and got the same configuration and style cabinets, but cherry not maple for $6450.00. We live in the Kansas City area and our cabinet maker said that he loved it when people came in with the plans that Home Depot prints out because he knows he can beat their price every time and with better cabinets.

I'm going back to the supply store where my builder got the kitchen, laundry, and bath cabinets. They are reasonably priced and hold up great- Aristokraft.

RE: kathyanddave, I also live in the KC area and would like to ask you if you can give the store name of your custom cabinet maker.

An update: We went to the local cabinet shop. We told him how much we could afford; apparently he did not listen to us, because after 3 visits and changes in plans, the costs went higher than our quote. Needless to say, we dropped him. We tried a local kitchen and bath place, but they were expensive also. I think the problem is, we can only fit 18" deep cabinets behind the bar, and they have to be custom made.

cheerful1

Here is a thought. I don't know what you need to store behind your bar, but you might consider using only 12" deep cabinets, setting them away from the wall such that an 18" counter can sit atop. Possibly a way to eliminate custom. Wall cabinets are 12" and can be found 30", 36" and 42" in height - 36" might be ideal.

Didn't think of 12". Will look into that; thanks. We just need basic storage. We also want to mount mirrored cabinets/shelves on the upper wall so we can put liquor bottles on them.

fnmroberts - thanks!

An update...we brainstormed with our friend who finished our basement. We went to an unfinished furniture store that carries Woodcraft cabinets. We ordered wall cabinets 12" deep that can be cut down to size (36") for the base cabinets (putting a toe kick underneath). Solid wood that we will stain to match our mouldings. Also ordered corner cabinets and wall cabinets.

We were very annoyed that we went through 4 custom cabinetmakers that never even considered 12" deep cabinets.

cheerful1

You're welcome. Glad that worked for you. Woodcraft makes some very nice cabinets. Didn't know theirs are available unfinished though.

I'm not surprised that the custom guys didn't think "outside the box". Unfortunately, custom to a fabricator is something they don't carry pre-manufactured. They are set up to create standard sizes, perhaps adjusted for width, because in a standard kitchen the depth would not vary.

I've helped enough friends deal with space in their basements that I knew wall cabinets often work nicely.

Enjoy!