A good drinks cabinet holds the bottles you actually drink, keeps glasses within reach, gives you a surface to mix on and looks as good closed as it does open. Start with what you will keel sycamore marquetry with brushed nickel overlay.
01Drinks cabinet, cocktail cabinet or bar cabinet?
The names overlap. A drinks cabinet usually means a closed cabinet for bottles and glasses. A cocktail cabinet adds a working surface and room for tools, and a bar cabinet is the fuller version, often with lighting, drawers and space for thirty bottles or more. What matters is the interior, not the label.
02Start with the bottles
Count what you keep now and add a little room to grow. Measure your tallest bottle: most spirits stand around 30 to 33 cm, but some gins, liqueurs and magnums are taller, and shelves should clear them with space for a hand. Wine is best stored lying down, in a separate rack or a dedicated wine cabinet.
03Glasses, tools and a surface to work on
Plan a place for each kind of glass, ideally at eye level and behind a door so they stay free of dust. A worktop that resists spills is the most useful thing a cabinet can have. Our Panthera and Koshi bar cabinets both open onto a porcelain cocktail worktop, which shrugs off citrus, ice and alcohol.
Drawers hold the tools: jiggers, spoons, strainers, napkins and the corkscrew everyone looks for. Angled drawers, like those in the Koshi Ember bar cabinet, show labels at a glance.
04Light and lock
Interior lighting turns a cabinet into a focal point in the evening and makes it easier to find a bottle. A lock is worth having if there are children in the house or the cabinet holds rare bottles; the Kitsune wine cabinet has a lockable door and room for 16 bottles.
05Proportion and position
A drinks cabinet is usually a statement piece, so give it a wall of its own in a dining room, sitting room or study, away from radiators and direct sun, which can damage both the spirits and fine veneers. Check that the doors can open fully, and allow standing room in front.
Tall cabinets suit high ceilings and smaller footprints; low, wide sideboard bars sit well beneath a painting or a window. If your room is unusual, a bespoke cabinet can be drawn to the space and your collection.
06Choosing the finish
Closed, the cabinet is a piece of furniture you look at every day. Hand-laid marquetry, metal overlay and lacquer give a surface that changes with the light. Our drinks and bar cabinets are made to order in your choice of veneer, metal and interior, from £22,000, and our guide to bespoke bar cabinets goes further into commissioning one.
