BAR CARTS AND STANDS

One thing we've always wanted to have is one of those really cool open bar type carts.  A place to put the liquor bottles, the bar accessories, glasses, etc.  So I've been looking online and found these random pics.  They seem to be a "hot decorating trend" at the moment so I figured I'd do some checking.  This past weekend, we found a table with three shelves that we want to turn into a bar.

I've mentioned before that our space at the farm is limited.  At less than 1000 square feet, we sometimes need to come up with some other way of doing the things we want to do.  One thing we'll need is a place to keep bar glassware and all the accessories.  No space in the kitchen, no empty cabinets or shelves in the mudroom, not a lot of room for a big piece of furniture.  So we're going to repurpose another piece we found and make it into something like one of these.

The one we found doesn't have wheels, but we don't necessarily need it to roll around (and on the uneven floors in the house, that might not work anyway, ha).  Still, a nice place to keep everything centrally located would be great so we are going to use an empty corner in the dining room that currently has nothing there.  We originally thought of putting a bigger cabinet of some sort in that spot, but decided that it would be the perfect location for one of these.

They can be elegant or formal or casual or contemporary, as you can see in all of these photos.  The one we found (picture coming soon) is wood, that matches our dining table in color, and has wicker shelves on the two lower sections.  I noticed that the ones with wheels, such as this one, have rails built around each shelf, presumably to keep stuff from falling out while it's being moved.  We figure putting it in one place in a main location in the house would be safe and we wouldn't have to worry about glasses "falling out" since we won't be moving it around.

As you can see in this one, they can be about more than just liquor at a party.  Perhaps some sparkling wine?  Fresh fruit?  magazines or books?  Maybe even a cheese tray?  Whatever you might need it for, a stand or cart can be used in many different ways.

This one is repurposed from an old industrial tool cart (would love to have something like this but alas, space is limited).  I was thinking we could even change out some of the items and make it a coffee bar, or a tea bar, water, etc, depending on what is going on at the farm at that time.

I'll see what we can come up when we get the piece.  It's originally supposed to be an end table, but stay tuned and let's see if we can turn it into something fun and interesting like one of these...

UPDATE 2013:  Click HERE to see what we finally came up with!