purelyefficient.com Links you click on this page may be affiliate links that earn us a commission. We always recommend products that we have personally used and tested.
| Space Efficiency | Cost Efficiency | Time Efficiency | Product Quality | Overall |
| 8.5/10 | 7/10 | 9.5/10 | 9/10 | 8.5/10 |
Are you looking for a narrow coffee bar for a small kitchen, or a kitchen with not enough storage? Read on! We were in the same situation and found a really great solution.
Continue on for a full review of the Wermo 55” Sideboard Storage Cabinet from their Sliddo collection.
About two years ago my wife and I moved into a new house. It was a huge upgrade from our old house in many ways: we almost doubled the amount of square footage we have which was needed for a growing family. The new house is over 40 years newer, structurally in better shape, and it came with a hot tub which has been an awesome perk!
But one thing that wasn’t a huge upgrade was the kitchen. Neither our old or new kitchen have a proper pantry so we’ve always had to get creative when it comes to efficient solutions for food and appliance storage. Our new kitchen does have an island which offers additional counter space and two extra cabinets and drawers, but overall it’s still a tight fit to find space for all the food, dishes, utensils, and appliances while also keeping the countertops clear of clutter.
This issue quickly set us on looking for the perfect coffee bar to help us free up counter and cabinet space in the rest of the kitchen. We wanted to find something that met these criteria:
- Stylish. We tend to gravitate toward Mid-Century and Scandinavian design cues.
- Lots of storage, to help optimize the rest of our kitchen cabinet usage.
- Uncluttered. Specifically we didn’t want glass in the doors, so that we could cleanly hide away some of the smaller odds and ends that create clutter.
- Small footprint. We had a wall next to our kitchen table where we envisioned the coffee bar. But the problem was that it would leave a fairly small space to walk between the table and the coffee bar. So the narrower the better. Ideally, we wanted to find something less than 20 inches deep.
After diligently hunting through hundreds of sideboards, credenzas, consoles, and cabinets for the better part of a year, we finally found the piece that we agreed would make the perfect coffee bar for our space: the Wermo 55” Sideboard Storage Cabinet from their Sliddo collection.
What made this Wermo cabinet the perfect coffee bar
We didn’t make any compromises to our vision of a perfect coffee bar for our space when we purchased the Wermo 55” Sideboard. Since purchasing, we have received compliments on it from every single guest we’ve had in the house! In fact, Wermo isn’t your run-of-the-mill budget furniture company either – they’ve been around for 75 years and specialize in producing perfectly crafted furniture for living rooms, home office and dining rooms. Let’s break what makes it great:
It adds lots of storage to our kitchen and fit and concealed all of our coffee and tea “extras”
I’m a regular coffee drinker and enthusiast. I love experimenting with different ways of preparing coffee, and purchasing quality beans from specialty roasters is one of my favorite ways to splurge. This has resulted in my amassing a small collection of coffee appliances. We also drink quite a bit of tea, so between the two we needed a lot of storage space. Here’s a list of everything I am able to fit invisibly into the Wermo cabinet:
- All the coffee beans/grounds that I have on hand at any given time
- French press
- Portable bean grinder
- Tea pot and four tea cups
- Library of over a dozen cook books
- Tea collection
- There’s definitely room left over for mugs if you want to keep your mugs in here too
This all used to take up our three biggest kitchen cabinets, which have now been freed up to more efficiently store food.
There is enough surface area on top to fit all the big coffee appliances
In addition to the internal storage, the top surface of the cabinet has become the single location for all the large and/or electric coffee and tea appliances.
- Keurig Duo, which is awesome for a quick cup or when you need to make a full pot of coffee for hosting
- Bean grinder
- Gooseneck kettle, which gets used almost daily for making pour over coffee, french press, tea, or hot chocolate
- Chemex pour over, which looks great in its caddy that also stores your quality paper filters.
The shelf dividers leave space to run power in a concealed way
With all the electric appliances mentioned in the last section, you might be wondering how the Wermo sideboard accommodates cable management. The great thing is that the shelf dividers leave lots of room for running cables inside the back of the cabinet.
Luckily, we set up the coffee bar right next to an outlet, so I was able to run this power strip onto one of the interior shelves. From there, I could drop the cords from my appliances behind the coffee bar, and run them right up through a cutout in the bottom and into the cabinet.
It’s a very clean look. No cables are touching the ground anywhere, and only one cable is visible running to the cabinet. If you can set the console up in front of an outlet instead of next to it, your cable management will be totally invisible!
The sliding tambour doors give the sideboard as small of a footprint as possible
I didn’t know until I stumbled across this Wermo cabinet how much I needed the sliding doors on the front. It really minimizes the total footprint of the cabinet because you can put anything in front of it without worrying about blocking the doors from opening. It’s a very unique feature compared to most other sideboards on the market. The curved edges and tambour face are clean, modern, and visually appealing. It’s satisfying and playful to use, and brings variety to our space.
It was easy to assemble
The instructions for the Wermo cabinet were straightforward, and it ships in a small number of pieces. The top and bottom are each a single piece, the shelving inside is 5 pieces, and then there are two sliding doors, and the back. For ease, you should probably build this with two people, but I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily required. In total it will probably take a single person 45 minutes or two people 30 minutes to put together. The packaging was also robust and eco friendly, and our cabinet arrived without any damage.
Very little to complain about
I don’t want to focus too much on the negatives, because we’ve had this cabinet in our kitchen for 4 months now and 100% recommend it to anyone else looking for something similar. However, it is on the more expensive side compared to some other comparables on the market. But you pay for what you get, and so far I would say this is a quality piece.
The far right and far left shelves seem slightly limited in their use because of the curved shape of the ends of the cabinet. I put some larger recipe books on those shelves, and I can feel that the door has a little bit of friction with the corners of the books as it slides around the track.
If you must have solid wood furniture, this piece may not be for you. The Wermo credenza is made of manufactured wood with walnut veneer. However, the cabinet is very heavy and sturdy. The manufactured core is less likely than solid wood to warp with temperature fluctuations as well, which is vital for the sliding door design. If the wood were to expand too much, it might cause the doors to be inoperable. I also like to protect the top veneer from moisture or leaks by putting this mat under our Keurig.
Even at 17.7” deep, this might still be too deep for a truly narrow coffee bar solution. It is only slightly deeper than the absolute minimum though to fit our Keurig Duo, so it is a very reasonable depth for a coffee bar. It worked perfectly for our space, but always measure your space before purchasing anything to see if it will be suitable for you.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a sideboard or credenza to use as a coffee bar in your home, we would highly recommend the Wermo Sliddo. It is elegant, efficient, and made from sturdy materials that are sure to last a long time. In addition, its high quality makes it a fair value for the price. Click here to learn more and check the latest prices.
