I am in the process of building a bar in the basement. I am 90% done, and one of the things that I’m not sure on how to tackle is the molding around the edges of the bar top.

I cut the top out of a piece of formica countertop, and i put a radius on it kind of like a half moon, but I don’t know how to go about the modling.

I went to someone’s house over the weekend and saw that they made their own molding with some ½” wood that was “L” shaped (2 pieces either glued or screwed together). Then they stapled some foam on top of the wood, along with some vinyl. Then screwed the new molding to the top from underneath with screws going up though the top and into the molding.

Anyone have any better ideas?

trace the counter radius onto piece of solid stock lumber
cut the radius out of solid lumber. oak, maple, whatever
glue and clamp to the corner
glue solid lumber to straight edges and then pick out a profile router bit and run the router around the entire edge.
sand and finish

good luck

How big is the radius . Trying to bend a solid piece of oak my not happen without back cutting.

I think Bruce's method will look the best.

padded bars don't do nothing for me I love real
wood, I made mine out of a solid wood butcher block top
clear epoxy top

We use a red oak bar rail similar (not exact) as the one pictured below. It sits over the bar top and is anchored from below.

I've seen the above rail used several times. It works pretty good. The spills can't run over and it's nicly radiused so that it doesn't hurt. The only drawback is if you want to eat at the bar. The profile causes you to put the plate too far away.

thanks for the ideas....

i was looking for something like what Playn posted, but i think that is too thick to bend and take the shape of my radius.

i was wondering if they make something like this in something flexible????

Playn's picture is of a WOOD edge, not a laminate one.

If you are talking about using laminate on a rolled edge, you have to do the "whole top" at one time with a heat gun so you have no seams. If you've already cut the edge off, the wood will be your best bet (stained and varnished).

There's lots of other wood edging trim styles that you can use. You've kinf of limited yourself to not being able to use a laminated edge..

You COULD use Corian to edge it with - they have zillions of colors and it cuts just like wood so you could have a cabinet shop make whatever shape you wanted.