COCKTAIL ELEVATOR

Done for the day? Press a button to order up your favorite refreshment

- JAY CORK

With its inlaid lighting, this countertop made the perfect setting for a truly luxurious touch—a hidden cocktail bar. I took a simple cabinet box, stirred in a motorized TV lift and added a splash of creative wiring to give this garage an entertaining twist.

1 MAKE THE BASE

I fashioned a base for my cocktail bar by tracing the section of countertop that editor Mike Berner made in “Workbench to Bar Top” on p. 28. I used the same butcher block material and cut out the shape with a jigsaw.

2 ASSEMBLE THE CABINET BOX

I used pocket hole joinery just in case I needed to disassemble the whole thing. I’m glad I did. I miscalculated and had to remove the box and cut it down by a few inches. If I had used a different joinery method, that would have been far more difficult.

3 INSTALL THE LED LIGHTS

The next step is to feed the power cable through a small notch in the back of the cabinet. Stick the LED light strip to the inside top of the cabinet, snug to the back. I hid the strip with a piece of oak quarter-round, directing light down, not out.

4 PREPARE THE CABINET

To retrofit a TV lift into the cabinet, cut away the cabinet’s top stretcher. A jigsaw didn’t let me get close enough, so I finished with an oscillating multi-tool.

5 LEVEL THE LIFT

With the lift fully extended, use a scrap piece of countertop to position the lift level with the rest of the work surface.