A beverage center is a fancy phrase for an upscale undercounter dorm sized fridge (but without that dinky little freezer cubby). Ours has three separate temperature sections: one for red wine, a cooler one for white wine, and the coldest section has a couple of shelves for soft drinks.

A beverage center can be whatever you want it to be. We are putting in a beverage and breakfast hutch near the breakfast table. It is next to the prep sink. The UC fridge, with a separate freezer door, is for soft drinks, juice, cream for the tea and coffee, yogurt, fruit and water. It is actually a very nice, black dorm unit my son no longer needs. I don't understand paying hundreds for a built-in when this meets our needs. The beverage hutch holds tea pots, mugs, toaster, bread, flatware, plates, napkins, sugars, coffees, coffee grinder, french press, stove-top espresso pot, blender, teas, hot chocolate and soft drink mixes.

A "beverage center" then must have it's own small refrigerator to hold drinks/wine? So that's what makes it a center. Okay. Do you think it adds a lot of value when it comes to selling a home?

Sky

I actually look at it as more than the UC refrigerator... I look at it as a central location that contains the necessary appliances, storage, etc. to support common beverage needs for a family. For some, it consists of a coffee maker + coffee supplies + mugs + water nearby (for making coffee). For others, it might include a wine cooler + wine glasses + coffee maker + etc. Still others would have an UC refrigerator + drinking glasses + wine cooler + etc....

So, I don't think of a "center" as just one appliance, more as a collection of tools to support drinking...of whatever kind you do!

Yes, I do think it would help resale as a "nice to have"...more as a "Oh, and look! It even has a beverage center!" I don't think the lack of one would hurt resale.

BTW...If you have a bar somewhere else, that's probably where you would have your wine cooler, etc. But, not everyone has a bar.

I have one wall going in my kitchen that will be our beverage center. It will look similar to a built in hutch. We'll have a small bar sink for a water source. An undercounter ice maker and beverage refrigerator will be paneled appliances we will use in our drinks. On the counter I'll have the coffee pot. At this sink I want my instant hot faucet for my morning tea. In the upper cabinets I'll store all the coffee and tea items, mugs, glasses and wine glasses. There will be a place for a few red wine bottles. It's kind of a 'one stop shopping' for anything beverage. I'm an ice addict and VERY excited about this ice maker!

My beverage center consists of a full-sized refrigerator with an ice and water dispenser across the aisle from the liquor cabinet 5 paces from the sink and the coffee machine and tea kettle. There is also a dishwasher, cooktop, wall oven, and microwave.

This has been a great beverage center and we will replicate it to a large degree when we remodel.

It also serves as a kitchen when the need calls for it.

Fori, your beverage center sounds very interesting. Is it located in your kitchen or somewhere else such as a breakfast room or family room? I'd love to see the layout, even a rough sketch would be of interest.

buehl I think you're right - like mo_sgal too, I realize that everyone has different needs to be met which makes me wonder if maybe I should add a small undercounter fridge and maybe even a second dishwasher when we redo our countertops. Hmmm - like everything else in our up-dating the house, one thing is leading to another and another and increasing the costs. OTOH, I can see this would make sense for our lifestyle. Thanks for the replies.

Sky

Instead of a small dishwasher, you might consider a single DW drawer...

Ummm, just another (some would say overhyped & unneeded) idea to help separate you from your money :)

berryberry, LOL.

Ditto LOL-It does seem a bit redundant to have this unless you have a huge kitchen and want to re-direct traffic...and I thought the real tend was to put these in the master bedroom? That's another forum....

OK, skypathway. Since you are new to this forum I will help you out. Fori has that nice, dry, sarcastic humor going on. She actually named the morgue drawers.

(Her beverage center and kitchen are one in the same.)

kitchenkelly, thanks for the info on Fori's humor - I enjoy a nice dry sarcasm. LOL, now I get it. Sometime's I'm obtuse - LOL, I have a big grin on my face now.

Sky

I'm sorry. This kitchen stuff can get out of hand. :P I'm with Berryberry mostly, although for busy families or people who entertain a lot it makes sense.

But when I think about time spent in the kitchen, it really IS mainly a beverage center. Some days more than others.

What, KK, Fori named the drawers? Named like, "Stan" and "Gladys"? Ok, I think you need to resurrect that thread again... ;)

Yep, it's all Fori's fault that I will never look at those drawers and not think "morgue."

I don't think it should be "resurrected", it should stay dead.

I don't think of a beverage center as a luxury. It's a necessity: clean-up zone, prep-zone, cooking-zone, drinking-zone!

Bwahahaha KK. Too funny!

Hey now! I was merely trying to understand how the drawers functioned. The photographs weren't clear. I NEVER ever suggested putting corpses in those drawers!

Liquor though--that would work. If they were refrigerated morgue drawers, like they SHOULD be, being morgue drawers, they'd be a beverage center. Aaaaaaand we're right back on topic!

I'll add my two cents...

When I remodelled, I put in a wet bar at one end of the kitchen. It has a sink with taps for instahot and chilled water plus UC icemaker, wine fridge and beer & mixer fridge, cabs above for liquor. Coffee maker, mugs, glasses, stemware, etc., are in other cabinets in the same general area (5 steps or so). I've started calling this area "beverage central" because everything you need for whatever you want to drink is right there.

The working area of the kitchen (main fridge, sink, DW, ovens, cooktop, prep island) is at the other end.

I guess I have two zones to my kitchen -- work zone and party zone.

Mooring Girl - Any pictures to show? I'd sure like to see your party zone! :-)

Sounds like our kitchen is laid out similiar to Mooring's. The beverage center is right behind the island seating. It has glasses, the beverage fridge, and the base cabinet next to the fridge holds our liquor.

This is a bad picture, and I'm still waiting on the corbels to be installed, but here's our beverage center:

And so that you can see where it is in relation to the rest of the kitchen here's an overview of the whole thing. The beverage fridge is the small bit of counter sticking out in the foreground (under the spare filler pieces on the counter).