After buying a 3914 IC, I experimented with it by hooking up ten led's (just like the datasheet shows).
I made it into a bargraph voltmeter for my car. It took a lot of adjusting and troubleshooting, for me to get it to work right, and for the led's to light up in sequence, in the voltage steps that I wanted them to.
It should not be hard for you to make the same project. Then after that, you jump from that configuration, to one that measures mains AC (stepped down through a transformer for safety reasons).
One thing that is worth trying is to get an expanded scale reading. This means that led's light up only when the supply is within a range of, say, 8 to 15 V (for my car).
Below 6V, no led lights. This gives you higher resolution available in the usual volt range we wish to measure.
To set a minimum reference volt level, you attach a potentiometer to a particular reference pin (I forget which). Adjust until you find the point where the first led lights when the supply is at the desired volt level.