Brian Carr says his living room was once used so seldomly it might as well have been called the dead room. But that changed when the San Jose, Calif., homeowner installed a Wallace & Hinz custom bar, complete with refrigerator, icemaker, wine cooler and sink — not to mention a built-in plasma television. “We entertain a lot, and the bar is the perfect venue for it,” Carr says. “It livens up the whole house. It’s the wow factor. Everyone who visits says, ‘I wish I had one!’” Wallace & Hinz, based in Arcata, Calif., has been building its custom bar busi­ness since 1977. The team of 20 employees crafts and installs 50 custom residential and commercial bars a year, which, as owner Tom Tellez points out, is nearly a bar a week. The bars can be found across the globe, everywhere from the Cheers restaurants in Boston to an air base in Okinawa, Japan, or your neighbor’s basement. Purchasing a custom bar from Wallace & Hinz is an individualized process aimed at capturing both the owner’s personality and home accommodations. The first step, according to Tellez, is to plan a budget. “It’s important to let us know how much you want to invest and what you expect,” he says.

“It livens up the whole house. It’s the wow factor. Everyone who visits says, ‘I wish I had one!’”

The cost of a bar, which is typically constructed from mahogany, depends on its size and the extent of its amenities. “We tell people to think in the $20,000 to $30,000 range for a nice bar,” Tellez says. “Some people spend half that, and others keep adding features until they have ... practically a monument.”

A Wallace & Hinz bar transformed Brian Carr’s living room, making it perfect for parties.

After the customer agrees on a design, Wallace & Hinz carpenters build the bar exactly as it will be installed in the home, with all the necessary electricity and plumbing. After passing a quality assurance test, it is broken down into 50 to 60 parts, which are then placed in special wood crates filled with spray foam for cushioning. The bar is safe to be shipped anywhere, and most of the packing materials are recyclable. An instruction manual explaining how to assemble the bar properly arrives with the package. “Any experienced carpenter can put it together,” says Seyedu Chalker, Wallace & Hinz project manager. “If the client doesn’t feel comfortable having their own [contractor] do it, Tom puts together a team of our craftsmen and sends them to the site.” The additional cost depends on several factors, he says, including travel distance. To Tellez, a custom bar from Wallace & Hinz makes a statement. “We want to put in the best bar we can build,” he says. “At the end, we get to stand back and admire it. Then we hear from the owner, who tells us how their house is now the hottest place in town. There’s nothing more rewarding than that.”