Dry bar remodel in Ann Arbor, MI

Featured project. Ann Arbor, Michigan

A dry bar built around one green tile

This dry bar remodel in Ann Arbor is the smallest project in our portfolio, and it makes the strongest case for spending properly on a small room. The alcove was already built. What it held was cabinetry that had aged out, a countertop past its life, and a backsplash nobody had ever really thought about.

LocationAnn Arbor, Michigan

ProjectDry bar remodel

InvestmentAbout $8,900

Completed2026

Finished dry bar in Ann Arbor with a glossy green leaf-shaped tile backsplash, two butcher block shelves on black brackets and a white veined countertop — Green tile to the ceiling, two butcher block shelves, and brass on cream below.

The alcove this Ann Arbor home started with

The demolition list here is short and unusually specific, which is what a well scoped small job looks like on paper. The upper cabinets came out. So did the leftmost base cabinet, the countertop, and the old backsplash. The alcove itself, its opening and its walls were left exactly where they were.

That matters for anyone in Ann Arbor weighing a room like this. Nothing structural moved and no wall came down. The budget went into surfaces and cabinetry rather than framing, which is the only reason a room can look this different for this number.

Full elevation of a finished dry bar alcove with cream painted shaker cabinets, brass bar pulls, a white countertop and a green tiled wall — The full elevation. The tiled field stops where the alcove does, and the white walls carry the rest.

What a dry bar remodel in Ann Arbor actually involves

Behind the finishes sits a short list of unglamorous work that decides whether the rest lands. Pulling upper cabinets off a wall leaves torn paper and anchor holes, so it was patched, taped, floated, sanded, primed and painted flat before a single tile went up. A full height backsplash telegraphs every high spot underneath it.

The other quiet piece is electrical. An outlet was pig-tailed off the existing circuit to bring power under the counter for a mini fridge. That one line item is the difference between an alcove with a bar in it and a bar anyone actually walks to, and it is the sort of thing that is cheap to do during a kitchen remodel and expensive to add afterward.

New cabinetry went in as a change order once the alcove was open and the old boxes were out. Painted shaker, cream, with slim brass bar pulls. Crown molding was quoted separately and left off.

Close view of glossy emerald green leaf-shaped tile with white grout meeting the edge of a stained butcher block shelf — The tile up close. Elongated leaf shapes, white grout, and a glaze that moves between green and near black depending on where you stand.

Green tile, butcher block and brass

The backsplash is a glossy green tile in an elongated leaf shape, set with white grout and carried the full height of the alcove rather than stopped four inches above the counter. In a room this small that one decision is the entire design. The glaze is deliberately uneven, so the wall shifts between deep green and near black as the light moves.

Everything else stays quiet against it. The counter is white with soft grey and gold veining, run wall to wall inside the alcove. The cabinets are cream, the pulls are brass. That is the whole logic of a countertop and backsplash pairing, and why the backsplash installation is the line worth spending on here.

Two butcher block shelves span the tiled wall on black metal brackets, stained a warm golden oak and sealed. They are the only warm material in the room and they carry the carpentry a cabinet run cannot. Against painted shaker cabinetry, they keep the alcove from reading as one flat colour.

Straight-on view of a finished dry bar showing two butcher block shelves, green tile, a white counter and the open bay left for a mini fridge — Straight on. The open bay under the counter is framed, finished and powered for the owners’ mini fridge.

How the finished dry bar reads

The room does one thing and does it without apology. A saturated wall, two warm shelves, a pale counter and brass, in an alcove most builders would have left beige. Nothing about it is complicated or expensive by renovation standards, which is the point of showing it.

The one thing the photographs do not show is the mini fridge. The bay under the counter is framed, finished and wired, waiting on the appliance the owners chose themselves. Rooms like this turn up all over Washtenaw County as butler’s pantries and coffee nooks, and they are the cheapest square footage in a house to make good.

Browse the rest of our featured projects, then get in touch.