# Breakfast Bar



## Clark (Aug 13, 2009)

This was quite a project. This was a solid wall between my kitchen and living room and it had a few surprises for me. On the kitchen side, the wall was made about a half inch of concrete layered over 3/8" of sheet rock. I turned about 6 sawzall blades into butter knives cutting out a 5'x4' area:blink:. And the dust was unimaginable. Moving the wiring to the outlet and putting up a header was the easy part. 
The counter top is 2 sheets of red oak veneer with solid 3/4" red oak for edge banding. I am not sure if I will end up with supports under the side with the overhang. It seems very solid now but if it loosens up at all I will probably go that route. 
Finished with stain and a hard coat to stand up to plates, cups, bowls etc.
The face trim has since been painted white to match everything else.


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## H. A. S. (Sep 23, 2010)

Looks good! The little woman wants me to do something similar between the kitchen and living room.:thumbsup:


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## mdntrdr (Dec 22, 2009)

Looks great! :thumbsup:

Really opens up the space. :smile:


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## mickit (Oct 5, 2009)

Clark said:


> I turned about 6 sawzall blades into butter knives cutting out a 5'x4' area.


Well you did get a new set of custom butter knives out of it. Good day, I'd say:laughing:


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## BWSmith (Aug 24, 2010)

Very nice!

I did one a few years ago that we put drawers under.They got opened from the "wide side".They were part of the system to hold up the overhang.....sorta torsion bx like.IOW's we needed to beef up the looks of the area under top(didn't want brackets).The pulls were cut into bttm of drws........"secret" in that;the whole thing just appeared to be holding up top.Were deep enough for cocktail napkins and misc. bar stuff.BW


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## Kenbo (Sep 16, 2008)

Wow, that turned out beautifully. I looks absolutely fantastic. A very nice compliment to the room. Great job. Well worth your efforts. And.........you got 6 new butter knives as a bonus. :thumbsup::laughing:


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## firehawkmph (Apr 26, 2008)

Nice job Clark,
Turned out nice, neat as a pin.
Mike Hawkins


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## JohnK007 (Nov 14, 2009)

Nice job Clark! When's breakfast and what are we havin'?


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## phinds (Mar 25, 2009)

very slick ... I'll bet that makes everything look MUCH better ... more open and spacious-looking. Nice job


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

Nice job, it looks great:thumbsup:


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## Texas Sawduster (Apr 27, 2009)

*Very Nice !!!*

I have a similar situation between my living room and kitchen/dinning area. My only issue is the wall is a load bearing wall.
Been thinking about it for awhile. I don't think I will let the wife know my plans for it just yet. :laughing:


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

Counter looks great, very clean installation. I install those type tops by first screwing down a ¾" plywood cleat to the top of the wall (there should be a 2x4 there). That cleat fits under the top between the front and back buildups. Once screwed down, the top is fitted in and screwed from underneath. If all is very secure, you may not need any supports under the overhang.












 









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## tcleve4911 (Dec 16, 2006)

BWSmith said:


> Very nice!
> 
> I did one a few years ago that we put drawers under.They got opened from the "wide side".They were part of the system to hold up the overhang.....sorta torsion bx like.IOW's we needed to beef up the looks of the area under top(didn't want brackets).The pulls were cut into bttm of drws........"secret" in that;the whole thing just appeared to be holding up top.Were deep enough for cocktail napkins and misc. bar stuff.BW


Can we see some pics of that? Sounds interesting.......


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## Firewalker (Jan 3, 2011)

I agree with the others. It looks fantastic. Amazing how much more open it looks with something like that. Very nice work. 

I wonder if you encountered the same as I did when I was remodeling my sons room. Looked like drywall mud but more coarse and it would rattle your teeth when you hit it with a knife. Ended up going through two belts on my sander.....and yes the dust was amazing!!! 

Congrats on getting it looking great!


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## Clark (Aug 13, 2009)

Thanks for the kind words, all! :smile:
It has definitely opened up the space, my wife and I are loving it.
I really wish I had kept some of those worn out sawzall blades as a trophy, alas they all ended up in the trash.

Texas Sawduster; 
This is a load bearing wall as well, luckily I have a good friend in construction who was able to help me out with all the ins and outs of putting up a dead-man, header for the space, etc. It wasn't as hard as I thought and it hasn't shifted a bit since the install.

cabinetman;
I'm glad to hear that is how you would do an install like this...because that is exactly how I did it!


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

I had a similar situation recently installing our new windows. The house is CBS with stucco inside and out on two outside walls. I didn't use a sawzall, but used a skilsaw with both a masonry blade and switched to a dry diamond blade. If I had it then I would have used my oscillating multi-tool with a diamond blade for tight corners. For the block and a lot of the stucco I used an air chisel, which is pretty darn quick.











 









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