Bar Molding

Bar molding does not refer to what grows on your bar when it is not cleaned often enough. Rather, bar molding is wood or metal molding that runs around the length of the bar and is used as an arm rest or just as a decorative touch. Bar molding is not essential to your bar, but it sure looks nice.

Bar molding is designed to make your bar look like a real bar, and to give your patrons a place to rest their hands and arms. But bar molding is not limited to arm rests; you can also install molding at the vertical edges of your bar, around the floor, or just about anywhere you want to turn a rough edge into a round surface.

Tips On Installing Bar Molding

Recently my wife and I remodeled our kitchen and in the process we learned a valuable lesson that might save you some grief when installing your own bar molding. You see, we had a stained wooden ceiling meeting yellow painted walls, and we thought how nice it would be to have white wooden molding connecting the two. However, we installed the molding first and then tried to paint it white. Big mistake! White paint everywhere and hardly a clean line in sight. It took me hours of back-breaking work to touch everything up just right. So if you're going to stain or paint your bar molding, paint or stain it first and install second.

Also, consider the wear and tear your bar molding is going to take. If it's a foot or arm rail and needs to bear the weight of the human body, use wood screws and brackets. If your molding is ornamental only, such as at the corners of the bar and running vertically for appearance's sake, you can probably get away with wood glue or small nails. Remember too that cutting bar molding to fit precisely at adjoining corners usually requires a saw that can cut at forty-five degree angles. Doing this by hand without leaving unsightly gaps in your woodwork is very difficult and you may want to have your local hardware store cut your bar molding first or have it professionally installed.