At Home Coffee Shop DIY

Hi guys!

We're interrupting our regular "365 Days to Opening a Christian Coffee Shop" series to show you how we started with our own coffee bar in our apartment. 

I designed this in collaboration with a few brands for my last blog "Grace Belle" but I wanted to share it here too since it's part of this journey of wanting to open a real coffee shop. Plus for those of you that want to do a coffee shop one day, this could be a fun place to start and get inspired :) 

If I designed this in an old apartment, ya'll can do it anywhere! Here's the before & after:

Here's the video tutorial. I had these clips from back then but lost the audio so I had to redo that now. It was a lot harder with having a baby so excuse the random breaks and baby coos. :) 

SHELVES:

First up was installing the shelves on the back of the kitchen cabinets. First I purchased these renter-friendly shelves from Amazon but I didn’t quite love them. They were too thick and I didn’t think they would stay on the cabinet. They need a little room to bend so those are best for a wall.

I asked my dad for advice and he recommended these slim shelves from Home Depot. Unfortunately, these ones we had to drill in the cabinet so it’s not as apt friendly but we ended up only making 4 small holes which we’ll patch up later.

COFFEE SHOP SIGN:

Next up was coming up with a sign idea. I spend HOURS online to find the hands illustration for the logo and after tweaking this one a bit it seemed perfect. Zach and I always say “hand in hand” when we’re going through something difficult or even something fun. Throughout our lives, we’ll be hand in hand together through the highs and lows. I knew I had to name our coffee shop that and I’m so happy with how it turned out.

I found these acrylic sheets at Home Depot (they have so many sizes) and I ended up cutting it down into a square. Don’t do what I did and actually buy the cutter that is meant for these. I didn’t know they had one until after I spend 2 hours with a box-cutting knife cutting this down haha.

I peeled the backside of the covering off and left the other cover on it while I spray painted the back with white. You can do any color here. My mom has a craft room (it’s the best) and she was able to print the logo on vinyl with her Silhouette machine. You can always look on Etsy for custom prints like that if you don’t have access to that machine. After that, I lined it up and pressed it on the sign.

I hung up the sign with double side velcro tape which I will also use later for the DIY menu board. *Quick tip – use the scissors they include because you will ruin your scissors trying to cut the sticky velcro.

SPOONFLOWER WALLPAPER:

I wanted the coffee bar to look like it had tile and after researching I came across Spoonflower’s removable wallpaper. This made the BIGGEST transformation and it was so easy to do. The hardest part was lining up the pattern but with a friend, I was able to do it in a few minutes. You’ll want to first clean the surface, then peel a little bit at a time as you stick it on and lastly, cut the excess (I used a box cutter for this). Spoonflower also send a tool to press it down and smooth out any air bubbles. It’s by far my favorite part of this project and it made the bar area a center point. It also has a nice texture to it and feels so high quality.

COUNTERTOPS:

I knew I wanted to make the countertop look like marble and it’s something I’ve done in the past as well. I used this marble paper from Amazon and although it’s not the best quality, it does make it look better. You can also peel this off when you move out and it won’t damage the countertops.

DIY MENU BOARD

I spent hours researching how to make a menu board. I looked into purchasing one but everything was over $400 which seemed way too much for a home project. After strolling through Home Depot I came across these perfectly sized slats. I bought 7 and realized if I hang them with velcro strips it leaves a little room between the wall and the slat for the letters to sit on.  I made the letters with these vinyl stickers and attached them to this clear plastic. Then I cut the plastic to each letter’s size and voila! For the menu, I wanted to add a little surprise so I displayed our love story in numbers. First, it started with 1 Corinthians 13:4 which describes what love is, after that the next 4 items were important dates in our life (first time we talked, our first date, when he asked me to be his girlfriend, and when he proposed). November 22, 2020 was our wedding so I had to add that in, and lastly we moved in together so I ended it with the verse “As for me and my house we will Serve the Lord.” – Joshua 24.15. I recommend playing with those numbers to make it special for you!

COFFEE MAKER

Zach and I drink a lot of coffee so I wanted to make sure we got one that we can really use for a long time. After researching and watching many YouTube videos I decided to get the Breville Barista Touch and we’ve been using it daily since. We absolutely love it and highly recommend it if you love coffee as much as we do. 

COFFEE ACCESSORIES

COFFEE SYRUP

BAKED GOODS

DECOR ITEMS

I had this letterboard for a while and thought it would be fun to do different coffee puns on it. Another find I came across in Crate & Barrel is this cute Pinkie Promise Candle. 

I really wanted this Eucalyptus Plant from IKEA but unfortunately for me, it was sold out before the surprise. The vase I got was from Michaels in the sale section and that is also sold out. 

COFFEE & TEA

For coffee and tea I went with two amazing brands that give back to charities for humanity. Scroll down the page to learn a little more about these two gems. Lion & Lamb sponsored coffee and Big Heart Teas Co, sponsored the tea.

TABLE & CHAIRS

No coffee shop is complete without a seating area! If we look back at the reason I started this whole project it was to make this space usable. We needed a seating area that wasn’t with bar stools. I found this coffee table and chairs on Wayfair and they’re the perfect addition. We’ve been having dinner at this table set and I’ve had many zoom meetings here. They’re pretty comfortable and we’ve even been thinking of getting two more chairs for the future. The table is super heavy and sturdy and it came in two boxes!