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Article Number 855

The information in this article applies to:
Home Designer
Interior Designer
Home Designer Suite
Home Designer Deluxe
Architectural Home Designer
Home Designer Pro

In this article, we will walk through creating the basic breakfast bar as pictured above using cabinets.  Once you understand how to use these tools, you can then create other cabinet combinations to create different breakfast bar styles.

Note: Home Designer Pro and Architectural Home Designer have the Custom Countertop  tool which can be used to quickly create a custom countertop for use as a breakfast bar.  This tool allows for more flexibility in the shape of the countertop. For information on using this tool in Pro and AHD, within your program, select Help> Contents and Index and type in the keyword Custom.

1. First, launch your Home Designer software and select File> Open Plan  to open the plan in which you want to place your breakfast bar.
   
   Alternately, start a new, blank plan by selecting File> New Plan .
   
   
   
2. In an area of the plan in which there are no objects already, click on the Base Cabinet  tool and click in the plan to place 3 cabinets side by side.
   
   Notice that the cabinets align and the lines that differentiate between them disappear. We can still, however, select just a single cabinet by using the Select Objects  tool.
   
   
   
3. Now, place 3 more cabinets directly behind the initial ones placed. 
   
   These cabinets will also merge, and by default, the program will place the cabinets back-to-back, but if necessary, you can rotate these cabinets.
   
   
   
4. Take a 3D camera view to view the current cabinet configuration and rotate it to ensure that all of the cabinets are placed back-to-back.  It should look similar to the image shown below.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Close the 3D view and return to the 2D floor plan view.
   
   
   
6. Generally, cabinets in which a breakfast bar is located are taller than the tradition 36" cabinet height.
   
   Select one of the cabinets using the Select Objects  tool and click the Open Object  edit button to display the Base Cabinet Specification dialog.
   
   
   
7. On the General tab, change the cabinet's Height value to be 42"
   
   
   
8. Click OK to apply this height change and close the Base Cabinet Specification dialog.
   
   
   
9. Follow the same procedure on the remaining 5 cabinets until they are all 42" tall.
   
   
   Note: In Home Designer Pro, you can either Group or Marquee select all of the cabinets and choose Open Object to set their heights all at the same time.
   
   
   
   
10. Now, using the Select Objects  tool, select the lower left cabinet and choose the Open Object  edit button.
    
    
    
11. On the General tab, use the drop down menu to set the cabinet as a Left Radius End
    
    
    
    
    
12. Click OK to apply this change and close the Base Cabinet Specification dialog.
    
    
    
13. Follow the same procedure to change the lower right cabinet into a Right Radius End.
    
    
    
14. In plan view, your cabinets should now look like the image below.
    
    
    
    
    
15. Now that we have the correct shape for our breakfast bar, we are ready to change the radius and normal cabinets so that only their countertops are displayed, instead of the cabinet as a whole.
    
    
    
16. Select the Left Radius End cabinet and click Open Object  to display the Base Cabinet Specification dialog.
    
    
    
17. Now, on the height tab, we will change the Height (Including Counter) to be only 1 1/2", which is the Counter Thickness listed below.
    
    
    
18. We will then change the Floor to Bottom thickness to be the value we want our cabinet height to be, minus the 1 1/2" for the countertop.
    
    This means we need to set the Floor to Bottom to a value of 40 1/2"
    
    
    
    
    
19. Click OK to apply this change and close the Base Cabinet Specification dialog.
    
    
    
20. Repeat these steps for the remaining 2 lower cabinets.
    
    
    
21. Take a 3D camera view of the results.
    
    
    
    
    
22. Now that you have created a basic breakfast bar, you can continue to customize the cabinet's depth, handles and hinges, shelf, door and drawer options as well as the materials that make up the different components of the cabinet within the Base Cabinet Specification dialog.
    
    You can also add corbels beneath the countertop from the Millwork section of the Library Browser as in the initial image.

If you would like to build a breakfast bar on a half wall, or partial wall, use the same procedure for editing the cabinet height and see Article Number 317 entitled "How to change the height of an individual wall to create a half wall or partial wall."

Last updated on: 04-09-2009