Decorating and Design - kitchen bar

I want to build a 5 foot long kitchen bar to separate by dining and cooking areas. My kitchen is long and narrow. Any bar building ideas. I can't afford custom cabinetry to match my other cabinets. I have wood stained cabinets and want a design that will complement the room.

A bar is nothing more than a countertop with a large overhang. We most frequently see cabinets underneath but you don't have to have anything underneath other than a support at either end.

One end of the bar could be attached to the wall and the other end just needs a leg. Something as simple as a stair case newel post, an old table leg, or a new table leg from the furniture parts store. It could be a piece of shelf board with some molding on it to add interest. It could be some shelf board or plywood cut into an interesting shape and painted to pick up the accent color in the rooms.

You could build a half height wall with standard 2x4 framing, cover with sheetrock, finish with baseboard and 1/4 round matching the adjoining rooms. Paint and wallpaper the wall to match the decor of the room it is seen from. Because a bar is typically at least 30" wide ranging up to 42" wide, you will probably need to build two walls to provide enough stablility so the bar top does not rock. You would sacrafice the potential storage space but it would cost less than cabinets.

What if you bought ready made cabinets and had them face the other room, not the kitchen. The back of the cabinets would face the kitchen. Apply a sheet of plywood or sheetrock across the back and finish to match the kitchen decor. The cabinets facing the other room could be used to store all manner of things.

You could buy/build a bookcase and set the bartop on top that. Would give you a place for all your cookbooks and a display place for oversized cooking bowls or decorative stuff to collect dust.