Help find a liquor cabinet! (Now a build and organize liquor cabinet thread)

DaveInCLT

DaveInCLT

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I've been searching for decent sized liquor cabinet and just not finding anything that I look at and say "That's it"

Seeking something that's pretty traditional - a darker wood cabinet with glass doors, lights above the shelves. Has a place for taller bottles as well as a bunch of standard sized ones.

Any ideas? Have one you really like?

Our two top candidates, neither are ideal but might work:

https://www.wineenthusiast.com/spirits-vault
- a little lighter color than we want
- no where to go look at the quality locally
- not sure I like the bank vault style, but my wife does so that's a plus
- relatively pricey for RTA furniture
3370401_1


2nd place stopgap piece is an ikea Malsjo cabinet

www.ikea.com

MALSJÖ Glass-door cabinet, black stained black stained, 40 1/2x18 7/8x55 1/2" - IKEA

MALSJÖ Glass-door cabinet, black stained black stained, 40 1/2x18 7/8x55 1/2". Glass-door cabinet keeps your favorite items free from dust but still visible. The attention to detail gives the furniture a distinct handcrafted character.
www.ikea.com www.ikea.com
- darker color (black) than we want but would be OK
- typical Ikea quality. Just OK not great.
- my wife says anything Ikea reminds her of college apartment furniture but she wouldn't complain if we got this
- would need to add lighting, which they sell kit's that'd fit fine

malsjoe-glass-door-cabinet-black-stained__0383559_pe558042_s5.jpg



Some other links I made during the search:
https://www.furniturelandsouth.com/Display-Cabinet. Likely $$$
https://www.potterybarn.com/products/maverick-cabinet-mp/. Likely a bit too small, would need 2
https://www.potterybarn.com/products/christen-display-cabinet-mp/ a little bookshelfie
 
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Just beware of anything with thin glass shelves. Those bottles are heavy, and it is easy to bust a shelf and watch your entire collection come crashing down into a puddle of despair. There have been a lot of guys who bought old curio cabinets with glass shelves to use as a liquor cabinet and learned this lesson the hard way.
 
Seriously, you need a bar, not a liquor cabinet.
 
Yeah I found an antique curio cabinet that has some interest but has wood shelves. Going to look tomorrow

wife is worried about bottoms of bottles having some moisture messing up the wood but could put some thing down like the cover I have on my desk or even coasters although that probably wouldn’t look great
 
DaveInCLT said:
Yeah I found an antique curio cabinet that has some interest but has wood shelves. Going to look tomorrow

wife is worried about bottoms of bottles having some moisture messing up the wood but could put some thing down like the cover I have on my desk or even coasters although that probably wouldn’t look great
Click to expand...
My parents used to put a thin sheet of custom cut glass on top of wood furniture they didn't want water rings on.
 
Went to look at it in person today and took a bunch of measurements. It would need to lose a shelf to make it usable (to fit 11 - 14 inch tall bottles) which would make it too small in shelf space. dammit.

Wish it would have worked, it was a decent match to other antique furniture I have in the dining room where it’s going both in style and wood color

The search continues.


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Ok quick update on my search. I found a piece close enough to what I was looking for at Crate & Barrel and watched for a sale a couple months ago. It’s a bookcase but has glass doors and sides. Decent size, strong enough wood shelves.

I got it delivered a month or so ago and have been plotting how to put subtle LED lighting in since it didn’t come with any. Once I researched and measured I created a plan on how to install the lights in a minimally invasive approach inline with an S pattern. Only one hole to drill, at the bottom.

plan.png

I couldn’t decide if the light temperature would work best as warm white or bright white so I ended up ordering a set I can dim and color change from 3000-6000k. And the six lights would fit my plan above perfectly! Ordered it and the up and down connector cables.

LED Under Cabinet Lighting Kit Plug in Wired, 6 Pcs 12 Inches Dimmable LED Under Cabinet Lights Strips Tunable White 3000K-6000K, 18W... https://a.co/d/b8sF6fU

So today I finally get around to setting it up. Lights all worked on the table, I found a way to snake the connectors down the door frame (still need to find a way to secure them). Laid everything out before mounting and realized… my damn bookcase has 4 shelves and I only put 3 in my little sketch, doh. And of course I ordered to match the sketch.

So mounted partially and laid our the wiring on the top three shelves today and ordered the rest I needed. Plugged it up temporarily and looks pretty good!

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We went to a resale shop and purchased an old china cabinet with glass doors and a4 drawers below. Painted it black and it makes a great display case for my bourbon collection.
 
I’m having the same problem. It’s more than my bar can handle anymore. I’m looking for something that I can display them in as well. No luck so far. My brother has an antique lawyers shelf that he uses and it looks great, but those things are a mint these days!
 
Finally back to making some progress on setting this up.

Installed bottom shelf lights and finished tucking the wiring up out of the way. Tomorrow we will secure the power cables running down to the next shelf down that are taped in place with blue painters tape.

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Next I measured the shelf sizes and marked 4 shelf sized sections out with painters tape on the kitchen table to start pulling bottles out of the cabinets. Decided to initially organize by:
1st top shelf single malt scotch and Japanese whisky
2nd shelf bourbons & rye
3rd shelf Rum & tequila
4th shelf Vodka, Gin and other

IMG_2575.jpeg

got most of the stuff out of the cabinets, sorted them and now need to cull duplicates to move them to the basement. Already found 2 Hendricks, 3 cao ila, 2 Blanton. I’ve got probably 1/3 again of what’s on the table on shelves in the basement so some of that will come up when the duplicates will go down

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mixers and mixer liquors are going to stay in the kitchen spinner cabinet where I kept some of the liquor previously along with miscellaneous jiggers, shakers and bar stuff

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