As the days get lighter, longer and warmer, we all want to spend more time socialising outdoors, eating and having a drink or two, whether that’s a cocktail or cappuccino.

If you love entertaining and bringing people together, a fully-insulated garden room that serves as a bar, is a great design idea.

Perhaps you dream of having your own traditional bar, or maybe you’d love a luxurious cocktail lounge for evening soirees. Either way, a modern garden room could be just the tonic!

Here’s the best part though. Once you’ve created a bar, you’ll no longer be counting down the days to spring time. Instead, nestled in the comfort of a fully-insulated garden room, your bar will be just as inviting in the winter.

Garden Room Bar Ideas

If you’re looking for that’ll whet your appetite, here are eight different ideas for you’ll love to explore.

1. The Conventional Bar

Do you love the idea of drinking with friends but hate the idea of queuing at the bar, paying quadruple for a pint, and having to leave at closing time? If so, a conventional bar is an excellent modern garden room design idea.

Usually, a conventional bar, pictured in one of our modern garden room designs below, features a countertop area, bar stools, optics, beer pumps, an under-counter fridge and a TV (for sports, of course!).

There are lots of ways that you can personalise UK garden room bars. For example, you can add LED lighting for that night-time vibe, create a feature wall and add Bluetooth speakers (an optional upgrade with all our modern garden rooms).

2. The Bistro Bar

If you’re a regular diner, you’ll already be familiar with the term ‘bistro.’ When it comes to designing UK garden room bars, the main difference between a conventional bar and a Bistro Bar is food. While a traditional bar set-up will serve drinks, a Bistro Bar serves a wider selection of non-alcoholic drinks and food.

So, if you’re thinking about modern garden room design ideas that’ll give you a more versatile bar that’s on-trend, you’ll need to think carefully about where you place your garden room. If you are serving food, you won’t want to be too far away from your kitchen or BBQ area.

3. The Cocktail Lounge

Indulge your inner mixologist with a sophisticated cocktail bar. If you think that you’ll need lots of space, you’re wrong. Unless you’re looking to perform Tom Cruise’s infamous tricks, you won’t need a big space. The cocktail lounge can work in even the smallest modern garden room design ideas. For example, Wayfair has a great selection of cocktail serving carts in reclaimed wood that would suit any UK garden room bar.

You can even purchase foldable bars, which is a savvy option if you also use your garden room as an office during the day!

4. The Bar Spa

The ‘bar spa’ is one of our favourite UK garden room bars. If you have the space and the budget to recreate that holiday poolside bar experience, it is a fantastic modern garden room design idea.

To create the design, the best place to start is listing all the things you love about the spa. So, maybe a hot tub, hammock, rattan furniture, decking and sun lounger

5. The Inside-Out Bar

If you’ve been exploring UK garden room bars for some time, you’ll be familiar with the concept of outside living. By this, we mean creating a space that works in harmony with your indoor spaces.

A good way to connect your outside space to your garden room with a bar is by creating a lounge area, much like you would see in a modern bistro. Notice how the Affinity Garden room owners below have softened their garden furniture with pot plants, velvet cushions, and candles to align their inside and outside space.

6. The Glass Bar

Unless you’re visiting a swanky inner-city venue, bars are not known for the light and airy feel. That’s why the floor-to-ceiling glazing seen in our UK garden room bars is an attractive design feature. So even on a dull day, you’ll still feel the benefits of natural light as you sit down for indoor afternoon drinks. What’s more, on those sunnier days, you can open your bar to the elements and bring the outside in.

Key Studio Inside-Out Bar

As you can see with the Key Studio design below, the owners have carefully connected their modern garden room to their outside space. To the right is an expansive sheltered area with plenty of seating, an outdoor wood burner and a pizza oven. You’d quite easily feel as if you’re on holiday.

Affinity Bar Spa

We absolutely love what this Affinity contemporary garden room owners have achieved. Careful thought has been given to how the space surrounding the garden room adds to the experience of this garden room with a bar, from the sauna on the decked area to the inviting hot tub.

Belle Glass Bar

We’re equally in love with this partitioned dual aspect 8.6m x 3.2m Belle contemporary garden room featuring a love seat, expansive entertaining space and live music room. What makes this space truly versatile are the two sets of bi-fold doors that make the most of the natural light in all seasons.

If you’re after a garden room with a bar completely enveloped by glass, The Temple Folly offers a heightened experience with the large expanses of glass and beautiful vaulted ceilings. You’ll certainly be able to recreate the illusion of space found in most modern bars.

Start Your Garden Room Bar Journey Here

As any UK bar designer will tell you, the devil is in the detail when it comes to designing an entertaining space. After all, there’s quite a lot to think about.

When will your bar be open?

Who are you likely to have round?

Do you want your space to be multi-purpose?

Will the whole family want to use the space?

Where will you place your bar?

What modern garden room design suits your style?

What is the budget and how will you finance your bar?

You’ll have lots of questions running through your mind and so it’s a good idea to play around with a few different modern garden room design ideas.

For inspiration, you can download a copy of our brochure and once you’ve got a few concepts in mind you can jump onto our UK garden room configurator. At the click of a button, you can switch designs, choose your interiors, decide where you want your doors and windows, and whether a decked canopy would work. You can even see exactly how your chosen design will look in your own garden using our augmented reality (AR) app.

There are, quite literally, thousands of UK garden room bar designs to choose from.

At SMART, we deliver and install anywhere in the UK and being in Bury St Edmunds we are very well-known in Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex and London. If you’re feeling a little stuck, you can always give us a call. We’re a friendly team and have years of experience creating amazing contemporary garden rooms.