Entertaining at home is a great way to see your friends and save some cash.

Whether it’s a braai, a dinner party or just a casual hang out, making sure you have some booze on hand is key, because the best part of adulting, is clearly adult beverages.

Even better – make your place the place to be by cultivating a home bar.

Not everyone has the space to install a bar properly, which is why I found this handy DIY for a Murphy bar that you can tuck away when you aren’t using it.

It’s not going to look like that beauty up top, but it will do the trick:

You’re welcome.

Now that you have your bar – or if you couldn’t be bothered, some empty shelves in a cupboard or on a bookshelf – it’s time to stock it up.

Obviously, beer and wine are a must, but now onto the hard tack.

Your first instinct is going to be to go full-kid on the booze aisle, buying everything that looks amazing, colourful and fun. Resist this urge.

We’re stocking an adult’s bar here, remember?

According to Morsel, a beginners bar only needs six or seven spirits. These are your standard base liquors:

• Vodka
• Gin
• Whiskey
• Tequila
• Rum (light and dark)

Once you have your spirits sorted it’s time to move on to mixers. Here’s where you can impress and indulge that urge to show off.

First, here’s what you need:

• Soda
• Tonic
• Cola
• Ginger Ale
• Lemonade

Pro tip from The Spruce: When buying soda for the bar, try to go for small bottles. Individual servings that work for one or two drinks will ensure you’re not mixing with flat soda later on down the line.

And while you’re at it, add some edge to your bar by stocking it with Fitch & Leedes, the superb range of authentic bespoke mixers, made with quadruple filtered water for ultimate purity.

Delicately carbonated, superbly balanced and infused with the world’s finest flavours, Fitch & Leedes not only adds a sophisticated edge to your drinks, but they also look good in and on your bar.

If you really want to take it to the next level, keep some Fitch & Leedes blue and pink tonic handy. The blueberry and rosewater flavours, with some garnish thrown in, amounts to an instant Instagrammable G&T.

Honestly, you bang one of these below out and people will think you’re some kind of cocktail master.

They don’t need to to know that you mixed gin and pink tonic and added some garnish.

Lastly, make sure you have ice. Lots and lots of ice.

And that’s it – home bar stocked, and now nobody can judge you for being underprepared.

Cheers to that.

[source:morsel&thespruce]