A garden room bar is one of the best reasons to invest in an outbuilding. Forget the taxi home from the pub, the overpriced pints, and the argument about whose round it is. Your own bar, twenty steps from the back door, open whenever you like, stocked with exactly what you want to drink.
We have built garden rooms across South East London, Kent, Surrey, and Sussex since 2004, and over the past few years we have seen a real surge in customers fitting out their rooms as bars and pubs. Some go all out with draught beer taps and reclaimed pub fittings. Others keep it simple with a worktop, a fridge, and a few good bottles. Both work brilliantly.
Why a Garden Room Bar Beats a Pub Shed
Converting an old shed into a bar looks fun in the photos, but a shed has no insulation, no proper electrics, and no weatherproofing. That means your garden pub is only usable in summer, your fridge runs off an extension lead, and by November the whole thing smells of damp.
A proper garden room is different. With 100mm insulated walls, double glazed doors, and a full electrical installation, you get a space that works twelve months of the year. You can pull a pint in January just as comfortably as in July. And because it is a permanent, well built structure, it adds genuine value to your property.
Garden Room Bar Ideas: Five Popular Styles
1. The Traditional English Pub
The most popular choice by a distance. Dark stained timber panelling, a solid hardwood bar counter, brass rail and foot rest, hand pull beer pumps, and a dartboard on the wall. Add vintage pub signs, a chalkboard beer list, and proper pint glasses, and you have something that feels like a genuine local.
2. The Cocktail Lounge
A sleek worktop in stone or stainless steel, wall mounted optics for your main spirits, a set of Boston shaker tins, and decent glassware. LED strip lighting under the bar and behind the bottles adds atmosphere. A cocktail bar benefits from a small sink more than any other style, since you will be rinsing shakers and glasses constantly.
3. The Sports Bar
Wall mounted TV, a few draught taps, comfortable seating, and you have a space where half the street wants to watch the football. Add a pool table or dartboard and it becomes a proper games room. Our Maxi range gives you the floor space to fit a bar at one end and a games area at the other.
4. The Wine Bar
Wall mounted wine racks, a temperature controlled wine fridge, good lighting, and comfortable armchairs. This suits couples or smaller gatherings and needs less equipment and space than a full pub setup.
5. The Tiki Bar
Bamboo cladding, string lights, colourful accessories, and rum based cocktails. If your garden room has bi-fold doors, open them in summer and serve drinks to guests on the patio outside.
Small Garden Room Bar Ideas
You do not need a huge space. A 3m x 3m or 4m x 3m garden room is plenty for a well planned bar. Here are some practical small garden room bar ideas.
- Position the bar against the back wall. This keeps the serving area compact and leaves the room clear for seating. An L-shape wrapping into one corner gives you bar space without eating into the floor area.
- Use wall mounted storage. Shelves, optics, and hanging glass racks free up bar surface and keep everything within reach.
- Choose bar stools over tables. Three or four stools at the bar take up far less space, and they create the right atmosphere.
- Go vertical. A tall, narrow wine rack or spirits shelf uses wall height rather than floor area.
Our Midi at 4m x 3m is a popular choice for garden bars. Large enough for a proper bar with seating, compact enough for most gardens and budgets.
The Practical Details
Electrics
A garden room from a reputable builder comes with a full electrical installation. For a bar, plan your socket positions before the fit out. You will need power for a bar fridge (or two), a kegerator or beer cooler, LED lighting, a sound system or TV, and phone chargers. Having sockets behind the bar means no trailing leads.
Plumbing
You can run a perfectly good bar without plumbing. A bottle bar or kegerator needs no water connection at all. But if you want a sink for rinsing glasses, it is straightforward. The water supply runs from your house through an underground trench at least 750mm deep. A small point of use water heater under the sink (around £100 to £150) gives you hot water. Drainage runs back to your existing drains in the same trench. The whole installation typically costs £1,500 to £2,500.
Beer on Tap
Draught beer is the single thing that makes a garden bar feel like a real pub. Three main options:
Countertop systems (PerfectDraft, Beerwulf Blade). Self-contained units that sit on your bar, take proprietary mini kegs, and keep the beer chilled. No gas lines, no plumbing. Just plug in and pour. The simplest option for casual use.
Kegerator. A purpose built fridge holding a full size keg with a CO2 cylinder, regulator, and beer lines running to a tap on the bar. This is the most popular choice for a proper garden pub. A decent kegerator costs £400 to £800, and you buy standard pub kegs from brewery suppliers.
Flash cooler. Sits under the bar and connects to kegs stored in a separate fridge. Beer lines run through the cooler to proper bar fonts on the counter. The most authentic pub experience, but also the most complex. Budget £1,000 to £2,000 for equipment and installation.
Do You Need a Licence?
If you are serving drinks to family and friends for free, you do not need any licence. You can pour pints, mix cocktails, and open as many bottles as you like in your own garden bar. You only need a licence if money changes hands in connection with the drinks, even indirectly. Charging entry to a party or selling tickets to an event where alcohol is included would count as a sale. For a private bar where guests drink for free, no licence is needed.
Lighting and Atmosphere
Lighting makes or breaks a bar. Avoid a single bright overhead light. Instead, use multiple smaller sources: LED strips under the bar top and behind bottles, wall lights at bar height for functional light, and festoon or string lights for character. A dimmer switch lets you adjust from “setting up” brightness to “evening drinks” mood.
What Does a Garden Room Bar Cost?
The garden room itself starts from around £15,000 for a compact, fully insulated build. See our full range of buildings and prices for details. On top of that, budget roughly:
- Bar counter (DIY built): £300 to £1,000
- Bar fridge: £150 to £400
- Kegerator: £400 to £800
- Plumbing (if adding a sink): £1,500 to £2,500
- Bar stools, lighting, accessories: £400 to £1,000
A realistic total for a well kitted out garden room bar is £18,000 to £28,000 including the building. Consider what you would spend over five or ten years on pub visits, taxi fares, and overpriced drinks. Most customers reckon their bar pays for itself in saved pub bills within a few years.
Making It Your Own
The best garden room bars are the ones with personality. A custom pub sign outside the door, a chalkboard with your drinks menu, a proper bristle dartboard, a Bluetooth speaker for background music, photos and brewery posters on the walls. Name your bar, give it a character, and treat it like a real pub. That is what makes people want to come back.
Save £5,000 with Our Ambassador Programme
If a garden room bar is on your list, our Ambassador Programme offers a genuine £5,000 saving on your build. In return, you allow us to photograph the completed room and host a small number of viewing visits for prospective customers. It is a straightforward arrangement that has helped hundreds of customers across South East London, Kent, Surrey, and Sussex get a better garden room for less.