DIY: Creating a Christmas Coffee & Cocoa Bar

When we were building our house, I knew I wanted to have enough room for a coffee bar in our kitchen. I had been dreaming and planning of one for awhile and I had a ton of Rae Dunn pieces that I couldn’t display at our previous home, because I didn’t have enough room.

So when we were building, I had asked our contractor to even move a window over a few feet in our dining room to give me a little more room for my coffee bar. I am so glad I did because it has turned into one of my favorite areas to change up for every season!

Keep reading to see how I transformed it into a festive, Christmas coffee and cocoa bar!

Coffee Bar Cabinet

So first of all, I get a ton of questions about that cabinet I have acting as the base of my whole coffee bar. I got that from Kirkland’s last year and you can still order it!

I love how it has glass at the bottom, that way you can see my Rae Dunn display easily. We had actually picked out another cabinet from Kirkland’s originally and lugged it all the way into the house, only to realize it was damaged.

So then we had to drag it all the way back to Kirkland’s (which is like at least a 40 minute drive from our house) just to find out they didn’t have any more of that particular cabinet in stock!

I was so mad at first, but then I spotted this little beauty on display and fell in love with it even more! So it definitely all worked out in the end and I am glad the first one we bought was damaged because I definitely think this cabinet looks much better!

Open Shelving for Coffee Mugs

The next thing we did to create this coffee bar space, was to find an open shelf that I wanted above the cabinet. We looked for a long time but I could never find one I liked just right.

I had envisioned a shelf with hooks underneath so I can hang some of my favorite seasonal mugs up. Everything we found was too small or the hooks were mobile and I didn’t want my mugs to move around.

So we improvised and found a basic shelf we liked at Lowe’s and then my handy hubby drilled hooks into the bottom part of the shelf for my mugs. And it works perfectly!

I couldn’t be more happy with the way it turned out. He did a great job placing all the hooks and now I am able to easily switch out my mugs for different seasons to display.

I also wanted to add in the theme of hot cocoa this Christmas season too. Because not only am I obsessed with just coffee, but hot cocoa too! So in order to do that I created a tiered tray with a hot cocoa theme.

I was able to find a few perfect Rae Dunn pieces and the other pieces are from some of my favorite shops on Instagram (see my top ten gift ideas from small shops on Instagram for more of my favorites).

I also purchased a cute handmade sign that has hot cocoa on it for the top shelf on my coffee bar. So I think these little touches helped me incorporate my coffee bar into a hot cocoa bar as well this season.

Here is all of my sources for the cute cocoa pieces. Just click on the item below if you’re interested in getting you one too:

• Candy Cane Garland– Hidden Valley Farmhouse
• Wooden Candy Canes (comes in a set of six)- Real Honeybrook
• Marshmallow Mini Mugs (comes in a set of four)- Real Honeybrook
• Hot Cocoa Sign– Faith Inspired Signs

Small Christmas Touches

Other Christmas touches I did were to add Christmas ribbon and washi tape to some of my Rae Dunn pieces as well. For more information on that see Adding Easy Christmas Touches to Your Everyday Rae Dunn Pieces.

I also placed a command hook on the side of coffee bar to add a cute apron and I of course went with a buffalo check one to keep with the Christmas theme.

And I just added in some cute mini trees from Target and other little filler items from Hobby Lobby as well. All in all, I think it turned out wonderfully and I am definitely enjoying sipping on some hot cocoa and coffee this Christmas season while looking at this beauty!

Do you have a coffee or cocoa bar in your home too? Let me know! I would love to check yours out too!