Ideas
Free Guinness downloads (table toppers and posters)
Guinness provides these – click on dozens of options to create your own menus, advertisements, and a whole host of other color printouts. Have a look: Guinness Celebrate
(You can put your pub’s name on it, but if you have an apostrophe in your text, you need to make sure your pdf software supports it. – I found it best to just download a blank pdf, open in photoshop, and put the text in from there.)
To Kegerate or not to Kegerate - THAT is the question!
-Shakespeare’s Beer Distributor
Keg math: Kegerators holds a 1/2-barrel keg, which you see listed as a “1/2 keg” (15.5 gal) and it’s the standard size keg you see everywhere in the US. In UK/IRE & the rest of Europe (and imported here), a 50-liter keg (13.2 gallons) is the common bar size. It holds 140 12 oz. cans.
A Cornelius (corny) keg, which is a top opening keg typically used for craft beer (and originally for soda), holds generally 5 gals. (There are different sizes, but 5 gal is the most common). It holds roughly 53 12oz bottles/cans. A different keg fitting is needed for your kegerator if used.
A used kegerator in decent shape found somewhat readily online is ~$300. (The cheapest new ones, say from Walmart, are about $500 delivered, but you may not want to go with the cheapest). Then you need to refill your CO2 tank, which is roughly $15 for 6 half kegs (so $2.50/keg, and we’ll ignore the cost of cleaning supplies). A 1/2 keg of say Harp is $180 at Total Wine, which usually has the best prices. (Guinness is $195, but you need the special faucet/spout and a nitrogen bottle/fill. A new Guinness compatible kegerator is $900 plus delivery at the lowest price point. Used ones are hard to find.) More on having a Guinness tap can be found here: How to Get Guinness on Tap at Home (kegworks.com)
$182.50/7= $26.07 a case, ignoring the cost of the kegerator (vs. $30/case bottles at same store). If you want to assume the kegerator is paid off with the first keg, that’s $483/7 = $69 per case for the first seven cases. (It’s up to you to amortize the cost over whatever parameter you want, say years, number of cases, etc. It kind of depends on how much you’ll use it.) For the case of bottled beer, I’ll assume you have space in the fridge or you can pick up a smaller, used fridge online for a negligible amount (<$50). If you buy the small 1/6 keg with craft beer (typically what people do), that will cost you the equivalent of $64 a case (without factoring in the kegerator costs), which is a bit steep. (It’s $16 a six pack, which is better than the $16-18 for a 14/16oz four pack; but buying beer at this price is, at least to me, is just an occasional luxury. You can buy crap beer of course, but what’s the point kegging or drinking that?) Guinness in a sixtel would be roughly $110/55 = $2/glass (excluding nitrogen cost and cost of kegerator), which is way cheaper than from a pub but more than from cans ($1.55). You do get the coolness factor and you would hope better tasting Guinness.
Then you have to ask yourself, how long is it going to take, possibly with the help of a few friends, to drink 7 cases (or 3 1/2 cases if you can find the slightly more expensive 1/4 kegs, or 2 cases if a sixtel)? A beer in a kegerator lasts six to eight weeks (2 months tops) before it goes stale (it depends on the kind of beer and the beer’s brew date). So that’s the question, can you drink at a rate of 7, 3 1/2, or 2 cases every 2 months? For me, that’s a lot, plus you are tied to the same beer. If buying cases, you have the option to get some variety. Kegerators, as cool as they are, and as better tasting (arguably) as the beer comes out, only work economically if you drink quite a bit of beer or have frequent parties. As tempted as I am, I’m hard pressed to move in this direction. (Plus, they take up space, use energy, and are noisy.) Convince me otherwise.
(I looked at the countertop mini-kegs too, as you can get used mini-kegerators for like $40-$50 bucks, but they too have economic and choice limitations. A mini-keg of beer is $25 and it hold 14 12 oz. glasses, so just over a 12 pack (which costs like $17). Plus, I only see Heineken and a bunch of German beers available (all good beer, but in an Irish Pub?!))
Kegerator Wrap
Speaking about kegerators and refrigerators, there are dozens of companies that will print out for you a vinyl wrap to adhere to your keg/refrigerator. Here is one idea that looks pretty cool. The image can be found as an Adobe Stock Image here. (It is called “Guinness logo sign on wooden gate of bar in limerick city centre.”) If I trip across a free image of it, I will post.)
The RIGHT Size Guinness Glass (for US cans)
Shown below: 20oz [imperial] “pint” glass (left) which is extremely common (don’t buy this one), the 16oz [US pint] glass, and the 10oz [half pint] glass.
If you are in the US and you go the route of canned draught Guinness, Murphy’s, or any other nitrogenated stout, (all very good in my opinion), be careful with the glassware you select. Don’t buy any Guinness glass you see pop up on Amazon or ebay (or the ones at Total Wine). MOST are the 20 oz. (imperial pint) glasses that are fit for keg/pub use. If you use the cans, YOU NEED THE 16oz. glasses. This is the only way to achieve the perfect pint look, where the cream rises just above the rim of the glass (the US cans are 14.9oz, but the cream/foam (i.e. “the domeage”) requires the extra area). The 20oz glasses are just too large for the can. Even across the pond they are too big for their traditional 440 ml (15.48 fl oz) cans. (The work-around is to open two cans to fill the glass, which just isn’t optimal.) The 16oz. glasses are out there, but you have to look and pay attention (and make sure the seller has it right, to the point of even asking them (most vendors don’t even realize the difference). The 16oz glass is 6 1/4″ tall.***
Actually, sometimes I think I’m in some crazy world when looking for these 16oz glasses. You’d think Guinness USA/Diageo would recognize the mismatch in can size/glass size that is so prevalent. This is the 21st century, right? The 16oz glasses should be the standard in the US for home use. They should be made readily available and the packs of Guinness available in stores should say on them somewhere “best enjoyed in a 16oz glass” and not just “best enjoyed in a glass.” What makes matters worse is the official Guinness website doesn’t even tell you this or offer them for sale, which is just really hard to believe. (The situation is so odd that I sometimes wonder if the 16oz glasses are some aftermarket product. The glasses look official (see box), and I’m pretty sure they are, but who knows?) Update 2023: some bars around here are now serving pub pints in the 16oz glasses. NO, NO, NO. You can’t do that. That’s just being cheap. A proper pub pint has to be the 20oz size (all around the world).
The “1/2 pint” glasses you might come across are a bit small at 10oz, so avoid those if you can (often you see in Ireland for people who don’t want to drink a full pint, so instead of ordering a pint, you’d ask for a “glass” of Guinness).
Note that both the 20 and 16oz glass both show a 06/13 in a white circle near the top (the 1/2 pint below shows the newer CE label now being used). The 06/13 is said to be a “metrology mark” showing that the glass has passed inspection through the National Standards Authority of Ireland. It’s claimed “06” refers to the 2006 date of the revised standard, and “13” is the date of the tested manufacturing mold for glass, though I couldn’t verify either when briefly searching on the NSAI website. I’m going to guess that when the new gravity glass came out (announced 2010), maybe 2013 is when it formally passed inspection? (Seems a bit long to wait though.) If you haven’t noticed, the squiggle line dividing the numbers is the level to which the pre-head fluid reaches.
Dec 21 update, I just saw this somewhere on the web – Instead of producing the right size glasses, they may now be finally starting to produce larger cans. I don’t know if these will make it to the US, the photo is from the UK. 538 ml is 18.9 fluid oz, so made to fit the imperial pt glass. Seems like a solution, but we’ll have to see how the cost scales up. It’s a good thing I wrote the little comment above about the glasses – they obviously took note of it and decided to do something! (Though you’d think it would be cheaper to fix the glasses, not start a new canning/packaging/distribution line. My guess is their marketing MBA’s figured out this is more profitable.)
Is the new Guinness Microsurger worth it?
The latest product hitting the market (starting maybe a year ago) is this $75 USB powered “Microsurger.” It’s really designed for [hard to find] non-nitrogenated cans (totally unavailable in the US as far as I know), but the tech specs state: “designed for any can of Guinness.” The debate rages on whether it’s worth it or not by the pro camp (people who sunk money into this and bought one) vs the con camp (a bigger universe, including people who have tried plus all the people like me, who just think it’s a fad (and arguably aren’t qualified to speak about it, but oh well, here I go)). The method with standard cans is you pin prick the can, release the widget’s nitrogen, then open the can and pass the Guinness through this [ultrasonic-wave] surger. People…really?…come on. It’s the same exact Guinness, from a can, either way. It settles out to the same product. Emperor’s new cloth and all that. I get a perfectly poured creamy pint from a standard can. It’s delicious (see pic). Guinness is $1.42 a can where I’m from. You can enjoy 53 cans of the gargle for what you pay for this little device (that you’ll likely stop using in a few weeks because it’s inefficient). But hey, maybe it just looks cool on your bar and it’s fun to use. Makes a great gift (which, if you do get one for free, ignore all of the logic above and just enjoy).
Another recent “technological achievement” is this $945 (£750) [wtf?!!] microdraught machine. Ok, so you take a can, [switch now to an excited second voice] yeah, yeah, take a can! Ok, now what, what’s next? Well, you put the can in this machine, yeah, yeah, then what?!! Well, then you press a button, it opens the can, and it pours Guinness into a glass. Wait, …what?
Has anyone heard of the somewhat recent venture capital flop called the Juicero? It was a $400 machine (see below) that drew in over $100 million of investment capital. It basically took an overpriced bag of orange juice and squeezed it into a cup. As you would have expected, it quickly became the butt-end of jokes, and it’s now used to reference Silicon Valley’s drive-for-money absurdness. Ok, I’ll say it: Microdraught = Juicero
The secret to their machine, Guinness states, “is a “double coaxial piercing of a unique, specially designed can” and it uses an air pump – as opposed to the gas cylinder used in the traditional system – to push the liquid out of the can and through the standard Guinness Draught spout.”
The device is really to help pubs look like they are serving a premium draft product vs. just serving an opened can. I get that, but the cost is just way, way too much. They also advertise it for home us. Really? What dope would spend all that money for a machine that opens $2.78 cans of beer? (£70 for a 24 pack of 558ml Guinness, which, btw, is currently all sold out.) Note to Guinness: you could probably sell all of us this machine (based on the coolness factor alone) but lower the price to something reasonable (say $200 or so). The price is what makes this a joke. If you ask me, Guinness/Diageo should focus on solving the glass/can mismatch problem!
You want a fireplace but don’t have a flue and don’t know where to start looking
I had to go electric but didn’t know the first thing about these things. My biggest buying criteria was I wanted one that didn’t look plasticky and fake. It also couldn’t be too small. I ended up selecting this Duraflame fireplace which I picked up at Lowe’s. It looks great, as it resembles enameled cast iron and it’s just the right size (not too small or big). it also generates a ton of heat (which I didn’t even think I needed, but it’s useful), and it has a nice remote control. I bought a $10 copper kettle on ebay and put it on top to make it look like I was simmering tea. When the heat is on, you hear the fan, but it’s not bad at all. The feet are plastic, but you really don’t notice them. I’d recommend this one.
Here’s the Lowe’s link (trusting this link stays active, but if not, just poke around on the web and you’ll find something that works.)
If anyone has found a better one, let me know and I will post it. Here’s an action pic of mine (note the copper tea kettle on top for a dash of authenticity):
Irish Peat Burner
Speaking about fireplaces, that reminds me, you can also easily find this ceramic tabletop peat [incense] burner. Cost is around $35. If you really want your guests to get the “full dose” of your Irish pub, put on some traditional music, burn a little of this stuff, tap a keg of the gargle, and get the craic going.
Whiskey Tasting Placement
We did sort of a “Battle of the Whiskey’s” here on St. Patrick’s Day 2024. Lots of my friends don’t know much about the different types of whiskey, so I introduced them to the 4 main categories – Irish, Scottish, Bourbons/Rye, and Canadian. We tried 3-4 from each area over a span of like 3-4 hrs. I produced this placement you can easily print out and bought those small sampling plastic cups off Amazon (I also bought a few pipets for a drop or two of water later in the tasting.) Here is a PDF of the placement. Message me if you want the .ppt file so you can modify it. btw, Maker’s Mark turned out to be my favorite of these, but they were all good.
Cheap, Limited Space, Whiskey Cabinet
I wanted something under my bar that looked better than the Guinness Cliffs of Moher banner I had. I also needed more storage space. I bought this hutch top off FB marketplace for $25. I sliced it in half with a circular saw, spiffed it up a little, and added a $5 Jameson decal (easy to find on ebay). It looks like a built-in. Easy to do, maybe this idea works for you.
Irish Traditional Music
There seems to be a limitless amount of Irish music available. Be careful what you buy though. When you see the CD’s that say “Irish Pub Music” – that’s code for the popular 1960’s didily-didy-do folk music like Whiskey in the Jar, Mountain Dew, Black Velvet Band, Dirty Old Town, etc. etc. (aka, “Irish drinking songs”). Can’t criticize any of it, and played at the right time/place, it’s a lot of fun.
What I really like is LIVE traditional session music. You know, the type of music played when you walk into a real pub and see all the musicians playing late into the night. Occasionally, you may also see a skilled dancer step up and dance to a tune or two. Now that’s good stuff. This type of music is generally referred to as “Irish Traditional Music.” or ITM, or just trad music. I particularly like the LIVE versions as you can get a sense of the atmosphere and you can almost feel like you are there listening (or playing along). Of all the CDs in my collection, these five top the list. I highly recommend all.
In no particular order – the first one is Christy Barry and his friends playing in O’Connor’s pub in Doolin. I was there a few times and saw him play. Outstanding CD. The second one is a session recorded in Cruises Pub in Ennis. It’s quite good and I particularly like Kevin Crawford’s contribution. I stayed across the street/river from this pub when I was in Ennis. The next two are Vol1 and Vol2 of a series (I haven’t seen a Vol3). Both are easy to find online. Just great musicianship and tune selection. They are staples of my collection; I listen to them a lot. (The tune set from them with the Skylark and Roaring Mary I use in my video.) The last one is a 1992 recording of music at Matt Molloy’s pub in Westport, Co. Mayo. This one is brilliant. Love this CD. One place to look for it is ebay (UK). Great pub too, one of the best for authentic pubs.
Another alternative to CDs is just ripping the mp3’s of live sessions on Youtube. You have to invest the effort to find the good ones though. The other issue is finding a good youtube downloader. Here is a playlist for sessions on youtube:
(196) Irish Pub Traditional Irish Music Sessions – YouTube
You’ll need to find a reliable free ripping program that’s not malware infected. What I was using now has stopped working.
This is a Spotify music list assembled by the lads who put together the Wandering Druid mobile pub I show on my cool home pub tab. They have on their public website so I trust they don’t mind me sharing it. See what you think: The Wandering Druid – playlist by Wandering Druid | Spotify
Shannon and Matt Heaton have been running this virtual guided session from their home in the Boston area all through covid. If you want to hear some really good flute and guitar playing, do have a look, it’s just exceptionally good work (it’s like a house session). I especially like the Nov 27, 2021 one. Virtual Guided Session – YouTube. It’s something you can chromecast to your TV and have play in the background.
Ambiance (piped in crowd noise)
A bunch of these are now starting to appear on youtube. If you want to go full-metal-jacket with the realistic pub feel, Chromecast one of these to your large screen tv and turn the volume to the appropriate level.
This one has some good trad music in background:
(44) Irish Pub Ambience | Busy Bar Sounds | 1hr Traditional Irish Music – YouTube
As does this one:
(44) St. Patrick’s Day Irish Pub – Bar Background Music Ambiance, Celtic Theme Music ☘️ 🍻 – YouTube
Others:
(1) 
♬ Pub ASMR – The Crown – A Cosy Country Pub + Pub Music – YouTube
(1) Irish Pub ASMR Ambience 18th Century Cafe Music – YouTube
This one has some decent music but the graphic could be better:
(3) Get MoRelaxed with Irish Bar Ambiance and music, Chillout and Relax with me. – YouTube
Dublin (Temple Bar) Webcam
The other thing you could do is put up a live webcam of Temple Bar. Found here (click on image). Note: I think you need to subscribe to the service to Chromecast it to your TV. You could of course run it on your pc and HDMI cable it to your TV.
https://www.earthcam.com/world/ireland/dublin/?cam=templebar
There is also one of the stage/music inside:
https://www.earthcam.com/world/ireland/dublin/?cam=dublinpub
Guinness Whistling Oyster
You could also play this classic (from the Guinness Brewery):
One idea I had was finding the best of these video’s online, download/edit it a bit maybe, then play it through one of those electronic picture frames that play videos (not just pictures) and let that be like art on the wall. I think you are limited to 15 secs for videos and cost is $100 or so, so not ready yet. I need to do more homework on it.
Mural Idea
Are you good at painting? This would be cool to have up along a wall. Probably can make a stencil to replicate. As seen in May Kelly’s Cottage in N. Conway, NH:
Another mural idea someone did recently. Nice touch adding the flight of 3:
And another, Kelly’s Cellar, Belfast
Here’s another good one, found at the Jameson’s distillery:
Here’s an idea for a stage backdrop mural if you have the space:
"Guinness" Toucan
Well not really, but somewhat close. Buy one of these resin toucans from Toscano (check Amazon first, they often sell them for less ($44 vs. $57)), print out & back this 4×6 dialogue cloud, attach it with a wire, and then find something to turn into a Guinness pint glass to glue onto it. The toucan is a pretty good size (18.5″), so it will be quite noticeable in your pub. It’s another addition to my growing zoo corner. “So rare, it’s not even in the vintage Guinness memorabilia catalog.” Update1: the sign kept falling off (due to humidity in my basement), so I took it off and made a clear sticker for the beak stating: “My Goodness, My Guinness.” I’ll think about a better sign to add.
Advertising Lamp
I’ve long wanted to find one of those four-sided lamps (an interior one, you see them a lot over old bars), but I’ve never seen them available except at auction and at extraordinarily high prices. (Update summer 2022, someone online is selling high quality repros for ~$250 and I bought one.)
I decided to try to make one but couldn’t find a generic pendant lamp to work from. I did find this ceiling lamp at Lowe’s (right) and I thought it had the right “bones.” I made the advertisements in powerpoint, created a pdf (attached here for your use), and brought to Staples and had them print on transparency plastic. Voilà – a decent looking lamp. Here is a link to the lamp: Lamp1
(Note: I slipped the transparency plastic on the OUTSIDE of the glass, it just looks better and probably less of a chance of melting (if that even happens). I also used 15W equivalent LED bulbs to tone down the illumination a bit.)
Below: vintage lamp in someone’s private collection. Love these lamps, impossible to find in the US. I have a repro one, follow link to Man Cave Collectibles on the Buying Help tab. He knows where to get the repro ones (or link here.)
Below: vintage lamp sold at Nov22 auction for 420 euros.
Ceiling Features
After 10 years of knowing I wanted to do something with the white ceiling to make it look less family-room looking and more pub-ish, I decided to pull the trigger by painting it green and adding some beams. For the beams, see the next section. For the color, I think I found a good color by trial and error. The first color I tried was called “shamrock,” but it wasn’t the look I hoped to achieve. (I bought from Lowe’s, a big-box hardware store in the states, and I choose “flat” (always for ceilings) and one coat.) The second color I repainted over it was called “Boughs of Pine.” It’s what I was looking for – something a bit low-key that enhanced the vintage look. The problem with selecting a color is there are about 10 colors that might work and it’s hard to decide. You can buy samples, which is probably the best thing to do, but that takes time and costs money. Maybe my recommendation can help you move ahead quicker. Note: obviously lighting plays a part in how the ceiling will look. Keep that in mind. Here’s a pic of the final look:
I used less than a 1/2 gal of paint for an area this size (it was a one coat paint). If you have a small ceiling to work on, consider buying a quart and see if you can stretch it (and that you are happy with the color).
“Boughs of Pine” (below). You can go to the Lowe’s website to track down this color’s code and bring to your own local store, see: Boughs of Pine Interior & Exterior Paint | Lowe’s (lowes.com)
Faux Beams
For the beams, these were not too hard. I started by going to my local sawmill (doesn’t everyone have one?) and had them cut some rough 4″ wide pine planks down to a 1/2″ thickness. It only cost me $28 for the wood. (I priced out styrofoam beams, but they were wicked expensive, it was over $1000 for what I needed. This is the best place I found if you want to look: Faux Wood Beams – Fake Ceiling Beams (architecturaldepot.com)). If you want super nice real ones, check out these guys from California: Reclaimed Box Beams and Solid Reclaimed Wood Beams.) I then put the wood planks on a table saw and mitered the long edges on 45 degree angles, similar to how the styrofoam beams were fabricated (pictured below):
Next, I assembled with glue, then secured everything with my smaller nail gun. My beams are 4×4, so I also needed a 1/2″ x3″ “plate” that goes on the open end, which I later screwed to the ceiling, then I tacked this beam to it. (You want to make this plate and have ready first, as it helps as a guide when you glue the beam together.) Once together, I sanded a bit (making sure to get any excess glue off, extremely important!) and added a small amount of wood filler to the long-glued edges to eliminate any gaps (wanting to make it look like a solid beam. You don’t want to see a glued joint). I sanded it lightly a second time (you want to retain the rustic look, so not too hard.) I then coated it with a wood sealer, sanded lightly again, then used Minwax Early American stain on it. One coat. The final step was putting one light coat of satin polyurethane on it (it really helps enhance the color). Once dry, I screwed the plate up, then slide these over the plate and tacked them in. Not too difficult. A one-person job depending on how long they are. –
Years ago, I put some tin-looking ceiling tiles on the back half of my pub (glued to ceiling, which was easy to do). These were 2 x 4 thin plastic panels that cost $245 for this 96sf area. (I also trimmed the edges with crown, so that added to the overall cost a tab bit more.) For the tiles, you’ll quickly realize there’s a bunch of brands, colors, and styles to choose from. I thought I picked a nice one that had a real vintage copper look, but with my lighting, I found they looked a bit reddish (vs. copper) and a tad bit plasticky. (These: Dimensions 48-in x 24-in Copper Metal/Tin Surface-mount Ceiling Tile in the Ceiling Tiles department at Lowes.com). I thought about spray painting a hand-hammered copper color over it, and maybe I will someday, but that’s work and a potential mess to clean up. For now, it’s adequate. An acquaintance bought some really detailed ornate ones, but they turned out to be too heavy for the glue and he had to nail them in. That was a pain. Word of wisdom: definitely go for tile look but be careful which tiles to choose. Buy a single piece and hold it up in your lighting. Order the bulk after you found what you were looking for. Don’t rush it.
Purveyor's Sign
Update Mar 2024: I decided to paint “Purveyors of the finest quality Porters, Stouts, & Ales, Whiskeys, Wines, & Gin on the wood edging I put up with the beams. I think it came out nice. I may paint over it with some wood stain to give it more of an ancient look. It took some time and patience, but it was pretty easy to do. I wrote out what I wanted in 2 1/2″ “Myriad Pro” fonts (i.e., the ones most closely resembling the John Gilroy Guinness typography), printed them (took 10 sheets), then hand cut the letters out with an Xacto knife to make paper stencils. I taped together the words, put center lines on them, taped them up, then I used acrylic paint to create (very lightly touching stencil). I always wanted to do something like this. When I saw the below sign over a pub in Cork back in Feb (24), I figured out the language I wanted.
Telephone Evolution
All pubs have pay phones so I was after that look. I always envisioned a 1950/1960 style phone like the kind I was accustomed to seeing back in the days. These old phones are somewhat easy to find on FB marketplace or craigslist. The challenge is getting one in decent condition and also at a good price. Typically, you’ll see good ones priced at $300-$400 dollars. If you want them to work, a lot of the decent ones are wired up to receive calls. Outgoing calls require some special hardware to convert from dial to digital. You can buy the piece needed on Amazon for roughly $60. (Buying tip: if the ad says it “works,” ask if it is outbound as well.) Phones can also be found on ebay, but all these phones are a heavy cast metal and weight a ton. Shipping will be $100 or maybe more so buying local is the way to go. Given the weight, mounting is also a challenge. I had to reinforce the wall, ensuring I can screw it into studs. Sheetrock anchors didn’t seem like they’d be adequate (though special ones might be). I was fortunate to be able to find a nice, working (inbound), phone locally for $250. After mounting it and looking at it in the space for a few weeks…I just wasn’t all that satisfied with the look. I found it a bit too shiny and new looking (even though the phone was over 50 years old). I decided to take it down, sell it (for $300), and buy an even older circa 1920’s wooden phone. I’m very pleased with the results. I have no idea what phones looked like in Ireland in the old days, I’m just hoping the technology was somewhat similar. The circa 1920 phone cost me $135 (the market I see is $125-$225 for these) and they are also out there, somewhat easy to find as well. Take your time and find one you like (it’s a buyer’s market). The one I bought had the old magneto/dialing hardware and batteries still in it, so it was quite heavy. I mounted it with the batteries removed. I put a nice coating of non-glare wax on it after I dusted it off and cleaned it.
When I hung the 1920 phone, I moved the green telephone sign above it, sticking it out from the wall (somewhat similar to the iconic sign you see hanging at O’Donoghue’s in Dublin). I provide a copy of this sign you can download and print out on the download tab.
Bar (curtain) Backdrop
Have a need to hide the laundry room door, workshop, or garage opening – maybe something like this can come in handy:
Amazon.com: CORFOTO: Bar Backdrop
(Update Mar24, St. Patrick’s Day, I bought one of these (the inside of the Temple Bar) to cover up my workshop area for a party I had in my pub. The beer fridge was in the boiler room next to the pub, so I wanted to tidy the space up. Very nice product. I bought the 5×7, hung on a PVC pole (cheaper than a closest pole) with two-sided tape, and it worked well. It’s made from a pretty good quality material.)
Famous John & Jackie Kennedy Picture
A lot of the old bars in Ireland have this classic picture hanging in them:
Here’s a 5×7 cleaned up copy to download (save it as a jpg):
Stained Glass
Quality stained glass work really makes a pub. I don’t have any yet, but here are a few ideas if you’ve got a way to create. (There are dozens of people on etsy who do custom stained glass. That seems like the place to go.)
