Conventional way of putting up Kitchen, Dining and Bar
When we renovated our home a few years back, we did a major upgrade on the kitchen. Rather than have a separate informal dining area, we incorporated it into a larger kitchen space just like so many others are doing nowadays. Additionally, we added an entire new room to the house, a lanai overlooking the pool, complete with a large bar that would comfortably accommodate 8 people on bar stools.
Despite all the comforts incorporated into our family room, the real gathering places after our home completion turned out to be the kitchen and informal dining rooms along with the bar. We might as well have not even had the formal dining room. It's only used a few times each year, the family and friends much preferring these more familiar and comfortable other haunts. I have to admit, I love our kitchen and the bar area is just plain fun and enticing, too, even for those who don't drink adult beverages.
Besides a television mounted high in a corner behind the bar and geared for games as well as movies and regular television, we went all out on the major indoor appliances in the kitchen. Convection oven, indoor grill, commercial gas stove, instant hot water, microwave, this in addition to the regular kitchen equipment like disposal, dishwashers (we opted for two to handle large groups and quick clean-up), refrigerator, freezer...and that's just the kitchen. For the bar, we got a mini-frig and stand-alone ice maker along with the sink and disposal all just steps away from an outdoor gas grill.
Perking up your Kitchen, Dining and Bar
Now with all that equipment and planning that went into the redo, I kinda thought we were set. Boy did I have my eyes opened. Honestly, I don't really know what I was thinking! You know...you cook in a kitchen and that requires cookware. All of ours was outdated and just wouldn't do mind you, or so I was told by "friends." Shopping time 
!
We wanted our friends and the friends of our children to want to come to our home. Times had been good to us and we wanted to enjoy it all. With that in mind, I determined to get what was needed to help all of us, residents and guests, feel at home and well taken care of. Starting fresh in the kitchen, bar, and dining room is no small task. I've included a super video below on bar essentials. But that's only about what bottles to stock. You've got to have all the various kinds of barware -- everything from wine glasses and beer mugs and pilsners to regular water, tea, and soft-drink glasses. Don't forget that glassware is not ideal for around the pool, so getting durable plastic ware for that purpose is important. Bar towels and bottle openers round out that list.
In the kitchen, you can literally go crazy. I've always wanted copper cookware. And there seem to be an almost unending selection. Honestly, it can be rather intimidating. I just did the easy thing and got a set, which worked just fine. I did get an extra very large pot of giant recipes of soup and things like that. Did you know that there are way too many selections when it comes to various types of baking items? I had no clue then how thick all these different kinds of baking dishes needed to be. In the end, I did the assortment thing and completely forgot a lasagna pan. You can imagine when I discovered that. Right! After I'd already started cooking the Italian sausage to make the lasagna recipe.
Mixing bowls, dish towels, dishes, glassware, silverware, cooking utensils....and I'm not even to the food for a well-stocked pantry and refrigerator. You know what though? Ive learned to see most of these things as mere props. What's really important to me is that we have these spaces where those we love want to mix and mingle with us and with one another. The kitchen, dining, and bar areas in our home get the most traffic. They are without a doubt the places to be where all the action is!