The Bar Top

We weren't sure what we wanted to do for the bar top.  Money is always a factor on home projects like this and luckily we found a great inexpensive solution for our bar top.  IKEA has this awesome 8' solid wood counter top called the LAGAN.  It will work perfectly for our bar.  The best part is that it was only $59!  This counter top is made of beech, is solid wood, in a butcher block style, and is completely natural.  We will need to stain and polyurethane it.  We have picked a high gloss polystain in pecan.  Polystain is great because it combines both the stain and polyurethane in one container.  This means I don't have to first apply several coats of stain and then apply several coats of poly.  I can apply them both in each coat.  Saves me time, and I really like a product that saves me time!  We decided to keep the lighter wood color for our bar as the rest of the room has dark wood.  I think the contrast with the light wood tones will help to open up the space.  We'll see if I'm right.  We may just have some ugly wood tone contrast going on in the bar!  Fingers crossed!