By Blake Herzog
One of the most in-demand kitchen features for 2024 is the rare one you can thoroughly customize to your own tastes and budget — the beverage center.
Whether it’s coffee you crave or you follow your passion for wine to the ends of the Earth, you can set up a station to cater to your needs by rounding up the appliances, equipment and ingredients you need to make a tasty splash in your life.
Scaling your beverage center (the term is also used for mini-fridges) to your needs and interests takes some forethought, but it’s also a great chance to use your imagination.
Setting priorities
The fact is there are a lot of different drinks you can make, and if you’re an aficionado of several types (say, wine, beer, smoothies, coffee, tea and flavored sparkling water) it can take up a lot of space before you even realize what’s happening.
If you find your wish list for your beverage center is getting unwieldy, you may need to scale back.
Equipment and location
Maybe you only need a couple of beverage dispensers to deliver fruit-infused ice water and iced tea, which could occupy a few square feet, or you have a coffee maker, espresso machine, blender and soda maker to serve all the beverages you love — plus you’d love an extra sink.
Clearing the space in your kitchen for all this machinery could be difficult, so in these cases you might be better off setting up a dedicated space in the family or dining room.
Wine collectors have even more considerations regarding storage and temperature that can entail one or two coolers. It would be ideal to integrate them into the kitchen if there’s room, but they could need to be set up in a separate bar area (and locked if you need to keep it out of reach for children).
If you have a kegerator for fresh beer, you may want to put it in the home theater or game room to pair it with the activities it’s likely to be consumed during.
Convenience and accessibility
The main function of a home beverage station is its convenience, so you need to think about everyone who’ll be using it. When there’s a significant kid contingent you’ll need to put the supplies at a lower level while being cautious about placement of whatever you don’t want them to get into.
Also consider how it will most likely be used. Will it be a grab-and-go stop as everyone in your household heads to the car or hits the trail? Or will family and guests want to hang out to chat and mingle?
In the former case, you should try to get it as close to the front door or the exit into the garage as possible, and for the latter you’ll want some space nearby where people can stand or sit while they share and reminisce.
The fun factor
This is where your creativity comes out to play and gives your beverage center the drawing power it needs to become a nerve center of the house.
This can start with signs and themed artwork, which can be refreshingly obvious or charmingly subtle. You can use glass-fronted cabinets to show off your collection of “world’s greatest dad” mugs or colorful drinkware from around the world.
If you have a favorite vacation spot or fantasy getaway you’d like to recreate at home, your beverage station is the place to do it.
Use art, knickknacks and furniture to transport everyone to the beach, the forest, the jungle, Machu Picchu or your favorite video game. Do whatever comes to mind as you turn it into a hangout for everyone who lives in or visits your home.
