A Guide to Styling a Practical Cart for Your Home

Bar carts gained popularity in the 1950s for cocktail parties, but they are making their comeback. Whether you have it out only for social gatherings or use it daily, styling your cart to be functional and attractive can be difficult. Here are ways to make it your own style and keep it practical for your use.

Before you even begin to style your cart, you need to know where to place it. You should analyze the space around the cart so it will flow with the room. This also includes deciding what kind of cart to get and what you want the theme to be.

When choosing what to include in the cart, you want to mix things up a bit. Try to find various shapes and sizes of bottles, mix and match colors that complement each other.

Now for the fun part, choosing your alcohols! If you drink a tonic and gin everyday you want to have it sitting out, not put away in the cabinets. The key to making your bar cart practical is actually putting things out that you will use! If you are leaving the bar cart out for everyday use, have different bottles that you enjoy on a daily basis but also include some unique drinks to offer to guests that add a little style to your cart. If your cart is being used only for special occasions, be sure to include alcohols everyone enjoys. Snake Oil always comes prepared to events with basics like vodka, whiskey, rum, wine, and tequila.

*Note: if you cannot find attractive bottles in original packaging, look for clear unlabeled bottles that you can transfer alcohols into! Just be sure to label for guests.

You want to leave glasses out on the bar cart for use, especially for guests. It makes it easier for everything to all be in one place so you don’t have anyone rummaging through your cabinets searching for a glass. Make sure your glasses match the drinks that are out. Since it will be on display, you want to purchase attractive, good quality glasses.

Snake Oil essentials:

highball/lowball

champagne flute

white/red wine

cordial

martini

pilsner

To successfully make drinks, you need all the tools such as a shaker, jigger, ice bucket/tongs, strainer, juicer, muddler, bottle opener, and corkscrew. Make sure to stick with your color scheme and style.

Don’t forget to include drink additions such as:

tonic/soda

juice

citrus

bitters

simple syrup

Plants are useful and liven up any space. Think about a mint, basil, lavender, or rosemary plant. They are super easy to maintain and can all be used in drinks! At Snake Oil we LOVE using fresh herbs in our drinks.

Art or decorative pieces are optional but certainly can add style. You can add string lights, paintings, a mirror, holiday decorations, the possibilities are endless! If you want to be creative, add a menu as decoration with actual recipes that can be imitated at your very own bar cart. Books also add another element of sophistication. Maybe a cocktail recipe book might look nice…

Napkins or towels are always useful, as well as coasters, trays, or straws placed in a cute jar.