Styling Our Bar Cart
July 3, 2020
We received this beautiful polished nickel bar cart as a wedding gift from my aunt and uncle. It’s sentimental to me because it was the first adult piece of furniture of our own in our newlywed house, which was on the scarce side of furnishings and happily appointed with a few hand-me-downs from our families. This cart helped to set the tone for the first room I would decorate, our dining room. I wanted it to be a cozy but elegant space for entertaining, and to me, a bar cart that’s well-appointed sets a welcoming, ‘help yourself’ tone for guests.
What’s great about having a bar cart is that it can become a party centerpiece that can be dressed to suit the theme of any event. I have used it to create a Bloody Mary bar, Champagne toasting station, rolling breakfast tray, Christmas cookie display, an English tea party tea service, a wedding shower lemonade stand, and many more iterations. But in the day-to-day, our bar cart is set with a select few items that strike a fine line between the decorative and the practical.
Bar Cart Essentials
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Fresh flowers
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Vintage crystal port glasses and decanter on a silver tray
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Cocktail books
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Silver Champagne bucket and a bottle of Champagne
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My favorite key bottle opener
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Etched glass stemware
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Crystal decanter for Cognac
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Tray for alcohols and liqueurs
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Penguin cocktail shaker and pewter shot glass
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Set of iridescent glass tumblers for mixed drinks (similar here)
Our bar cart; the white trays on the bottom shelf are actually two sides of a heavy cardboard chocolate box from Vosges, spray painted white and lined with gold metallic paper
Port glasses, fresh hydrangeas and a vintage silver plated Champagne bucket
I added these black and gold curtain ties on the handles to add a bit of Art Deco elegance
The bar essentials; we also keep Tito’s vodka and a couple of other items on hand, but those larger bottles are stored in a cabinet in the kitchen
I have only three, but these beautiful vintage etched stemmed glasses are my favorites in our collection
I keep these dried hydrangeas on our bar cart throughout the year and each June or July, I snip a fresh batch then let them dry out in place
Bar cart in our dining room
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