Modern Bar Top Ideas for your Home or Restaurant.

Last updated on February 1st, 2024 at 01:10 pm

A Glass Bar Top from Downing Designs adds a magnificent luminous element to your overall restaurant or home design. Since the pandemic, people have spent a lot of time in their homes, and this has caused them to re-imagine the use of their living spaces. When we do get out, we seek inspiring spaces that use modern materials in interesting ways. Our modern glass bar tops are not like any other material…they are translucent and as such demand a modern, sturdy, and visually stunning support plan. Old-fashioned support methods do not look great with Modern Glass Bartops. While we are fans of combining the aesthetic of “Flintstones vs Jetsons” in a historical tug of war in design, certainly the improvements we have pioneered in our cantilevering glass bar top support system is worthy of note here.

In this post we will explore:

• Modern vs Old Fashioned Bar top supports

• The Benefits of Hand Edge Polishing our Glass Bar Tops

• Creating Drama by Cantilevering a Glass Bar Top

• Glass Sink Floating Supports

 

Modern vs Old Fashioned Bar top supports

Many articles claim that high bars are “dead” or “Old-fashioned”. I agree. BUT…these articles all pre-suppose that the support system is either a knee-wall or a very intrusive support system that robs you of usable space under the bar top. MOREOVER, all of these articles also use OPAQUE counter materials such as granite…old fashioned materials indeed.  When you read these articles, they never mention glass as the bar top, and as such never contemplate our more innovative support ideas. Our Glass Bar Countertops are very popular, especially in Contemporary or Modern settings. 

In this blog, we will expand on our Modern techniques and the spectacular resulting glass bar centerpiece.

Here are some amusing articles on high bars being old-fashioned:

1. When it Comes To Countertop Design Raised Bars Are A Thing Of The Past

2. Are Breakfast Bars No Longer A Popular Kitchen Design Feature?

3. Counter Height VS. Bar Height: The Pros & Cons of Kitchen Island Seating Styles

4. Kitchen design quick tip – high bar or low bar, which to choose?

 

 

Modern, clean-looking glass high bar supports. (3)

Modern Glass High Bar with only 3 supports.

Cantilevered Bar Top Support by Downing Designs

 

The Benefits of Hand Edge Polishing our Glass Bar Tops.

Our optically translucent glass edge polish greatly magnifies the interior of the bar top. The rounded over top and bottom are very easy to the touch and even better at dissipating energy from collision with bottles, etc.  It is time-consuming to  hand work the thick glass, but the result is much better than a machine can produce.

When seated at our cantilevered glass bar top the edge polish is always noticeable. It draws you deep into the texture. We artistically “dissect” the edge in the middle of our abstract hurricanes, galaxies, and other graceful flowing lines. Our Technique creates a visual excitement that invites your gaze and touch to feel how smooth it is, and feel the texture on the bottom. This is the difference between our well-designed interactive approach that syncs with the flow of a room vs a random pattern that clashes with the layout of your kitchen or bar space.

Since it magnifies the magnifying the interior of the 1.5″ thick glass, it allows the artist freedom to design the texture so as to maximize the visual interest of the gorgeous refraction of LED, Natural and downlighting that sparkle and radiate from within.  It is truly amazing!  By polishing our edges by hand to achieve our soft round-overs, we are unlike the sharp 45 degree bevel offered by others which is doubly sharp, and prone to chipping. The result is a spectacular entirely hand-made product vs high-production machine-polished edge. We have attached a picture from an expensive, well-known brand.  You tell me which is better…no Think-ing required.

Gorgeous edge polish on 1.5″ thick Glass Countertop

Sand Dollar Edge in Glass Countertop

Your high-end bar or restaurant clients will likely spend a few hours at a gorgeous glass bar sipping exotic wines and enjoying gourmet dishes. This is exactly why investing in an exotic glass bar top makes terrific business sense (as well as for a home bar). They will delight in being at the best seat in the house, return over and over, as well as uplift your Social Media posts and 5-Star ratings with glowing reviews. This is pure gold to a business owner.

 

Creating Drama by Cantilevering a Glass Bar Top.

Many old-fashioned complaints about raised bar tops are that they:

1. Rob you of usable counter space under the bar top.
2. Create a visual barrier that conflicts with the open-space design.
3. Are “good” ideas because they hide the mess behind their facade.

This is true of old-fashioned support systems. But, if you have a strong material (glass) and use (2) supports for a linear high bar, it opens up all of the space underneath a glass high bar. This air gap also allows down-lighting and the LED lighting to shine through the glass and create elegant shadow lines.  Our design allows a standard 20” wide raised high bar to cantilever out 10” over the lower island countertop edge. This is a comfortable distance for even the tallest of us. Our design uses only (2) supports for even the 130” long bar tops that we can produce. Very sturdy and more stable than other supports. 

The open nature of these minimalist glass bar supports keeps the visual connection between the kitchen and living room intact without creating a visual curtain. Using knee walls or many stand-off supports visually disrupts the clean optics of our glass high bars.

Exotic textures also demand modern support systems…minimalist, strong, clean-looking and inconspicuous. Our support system is doubly clever…it conceals the LED feed wire inside the support.

When lighting high glass bar tops with downlighting, this minimalist approach yields a much cleaner look (very cool shadows especially when using our favorite ( LED downlights from SORAA). 

For 1-piece  “arced” or “L” shaped bar tops, we only need (3) supports…one at the apex, and 1 each at the end of the legs. 

Glass Sink Floating Supports

Similarly, we use hidden supports to “visually float” our Glass Trough Sinks.

This optically extends your eye beneath the sink. No water lines or drain pipes are apparent. This is also a perfect ADA sink design because clearance under the sink is legally demanded..

This allows your house to feel like it was coherent in its thoughtful overall design vision vs a Tower of Babel.

I hope that these considerations will help guide you towards investing your money and time into productive yet creative pursuits. If we may ever assist you, please just call (813) 784 5211 or email [email protected]

Thank you.