Rustic Hanging Liquor Cabinet Tutorial

This summer my husband decided to build a liquor cabinet. For the last two years our liquor cabinet has been two diaper boxes sitting on top of a mini fridge in our garage, it wasn't very pretty but it got the job done.

We've always wanted a bar or a nice liquor cabinet in our house but we currently don't have the room to put one and since we keep having babies, we don't want them getting into it so we decide to make a liquor cabinet for the garage. If we ever move into a bigger house, years from now and when the kids are older, this liquor cabinet will move inside and maybe we will be able to have a bar but for now this will do just fine.

Both my husband and I brainstormed liquor cabinets for a while. We talked about buying one, turning an old shelf or dresser into one or building one. All we knew was that we wanted something that had a door on it, whether it was glass or wood, to hide the liquor bottles and keep them out of reach from the children.

We finally came across a blog by A Beautiful Mess called Build a Vintage-Inspired Liquor Cabinet and knew that we had to make it! A Beautiful Mess's blog goes into detail on how to make the liquor cabinet so please check them out for specifics on how to build the liquor cabinet.

My husband used wood we already had sitting around. The majority of the wood my husband used was from pallets. The only items we had to purchase were

• Black and white paint
• Screws because we ran out
• A magnetic door latch 
• Wall anchors

We had all the rest of the supplies so were able to build the liquor Cabinet for under $20. If you don't have all the wood, hinges, screws, etc... it will cost a lot more.

How To: 

This liquor cabinet was all my husband's doing. He followed the steps on A Beautiful Mess's blog, making a few adjustments or skipping a few steps to better suit us.

This is a Speed Tutorial of how my husband built the liquor cabinet and things he did different. Check out A Beautiful Mess's blog, Build a Vintage-Inspired Liquor Cabinet, for a detailed version with a full list of supplies, measurements and directions.

1. Cut and sand the wood.

2. Lay out the wood to make sure it lines up and begin creating the liquor cabinet. My husband skipped the wood gluing and just assembled the liquor cabinet with screws. You will want to put a  lot of screws in your cabinet because liquor bottles can be heavy so you want the shelfs to be secured.

NOTE: If we could go back, my husband would of added another shelf to the cabinet because it did not fit all of our liquor bottles and there was plenty of space to create another shelf. I recommended it after he had secured the middle shelf and we didn't want holes in the back piece of wood so we left it as is for now.

3. Once your cabinet is assembled, paint it. My husband started off using white spray paint but it wasn't covering the wood like we would of liked so my husband ended up painting it with white can paint from Walmart. The can paint is a lot thicker than spray paint so made the cabinet look nicer.

4. Create the door to the liquor cabinet and paint it.  Make sure you screw your screws into the back side of the door so they won't show on the front.

My husband used a light coat of black spray paint so you can still kind of see the brown of the wood through the paint. The holes in the middle of the door are from taking the pallet apart. If you don't want the holes, I recommend buying wood or finding a huge pallet, but I think the holes make it look more rustic.

5. Ancor your cabinet to the wall. Remember that liquor bottles are heavy so you want to make sure to anchor it very well. Try to find a stud to put some of the anchors in. My husband used seven anchors - four on top and three just below the shelf to help support the weight of the liquor bottles.

6. Attach the door to the cabinet. My husband used two hinges instead of four to attach the door.

7. Attach a magnet cabinet latch just below the shelf to keep the door from slinging open. Add the corresponding magnet to the door.

8. Optional: I painted a wooden "M" I bought at Hobby Lobby white, attached two soda tabs (See soda tab hanger HERE) to the back of it and we hung it on the front of the liquor cabinet.

You can use whatever type of hanger you would like if you choose to hang a monogramed letter on the front of your liquor cabinet. I love monogramed letters and have made several, here are a few I've made for different ideas:

Black & Gold Dotted  |  Buttons  |  Yarn  |  Sea Shells  |  Unity Painting Background

9. Fill the cabinet with a variety of liquor bottles and enjoy!

The Liquor Cabinet is a great space savor and acts as beautiful wall decor. The Liquor Cabinet keeps your liquor bottles out of reach from small children and helps hide the bottles - out of site, out of mind, for your guest that is. Your guest are more likely to assume it is rustic decoration instead of a liquor cabinet so they are less likely to taste test your liquor stash. I hope you enjoy your liquor cabinet as much as we do, my husband did a great job!