How to Style your Bar Cart for the Holidays
Make spirits even brighter this holiday season with a festively curated bar cart display. The holidays are a great time to get together with friends and family and enjoy a round or two of your favorite champagne, cocktail, or even non-alcoholic apple cider! With these bar cabinet styling and organization tips, your guests can enjoy a little bubbly as well as your killer interior inspo.
Jewel Tones
Pay proper homage to the colors of the season with jewel-toned accessories. Ruby red, emerald green, sapphire blue, and amethyst purple are all suitable contenders for décor to spread a little holiday cheer across your bar top. Opt for jewel-toned flutes, champagne coupes, or lowball glasses or a single, gem-colored wine pourer or decanter to add a pop of rich color to the arrangement. Gold or lustered mules, cocktail shakers, and candle sticks would pair nicely with any jewel-toned bar necessities you decide to display.
Thanks, it’s Vintage
Enjoy an old fashioned alongside some cool, retro-inspired stemware and accessories. Something about vintage pieces atop a bar cabinet adds an air of old-school charm and the nostalgia of Christmases past. Gilded accents, long tapered candles, hammered copper mules, and vintage-looking decanters all set the perfect tone for a Great Gatsby-worthy holiday bar spread. Don’t worry, you don’t have to scour your local thrift shop for used pieces (but you can if you want to celebrate sustainably!). A simple internet search for “vintage decanter,” “vintage glass bar accessories,” or “ribbed glass stemware” should bring up the perfect pieces for your tastefully dated bar cart display.
Group Work
Carefully curated teamwork makes the dream work. Keep items in groups of 3–6 to maximize the tabletop space and design elements of your bar display. Things like stemware and glasses look best when displayed in groups of four or six. Wine bottles, shakers, and decanters of varying heights look great when grouped in odd numbers, like three or five.
Sweet Stemware
Stemware is relatively affordable and it’s one of the simplest ways to spruce up your bar cart game, so updating your tabletop for holiday festivities is as easy as picking out your favorite pieces. Gold-rimmed champagne glasses, ribbed whiskey glasses, and funky flutes can add an ultra-elegant vibe alongside your drinks, charcuterie boards, and festive décor. Don’t be afraid to mix and match either; your flutes don’t have to match your coupes, nor your wine glasses to your goblets. Simply choose the glassware that correlates with the drink of the night and hang them, top your bar cart with them, or place them on a tray.
Season’s Greenings
Your personal bar top is the perfect place to add extra holiday greenery. Style a small piece of garland above or across your bar cart, weaving around your stemware and décor. Place sprigs of holly, cedar, pine, or winterberries in a stone vase in one corner to be the focal point of your display. Hang a wreath or mistletoe above your bar cart to greet this holly jolly season with your green thumb.
Tis the Season to Make a Statement
Use seasonal props that represent your family’s holiday celebrations to fill the blank spaces of your bar cart display. Whether that be a special menorah, Christmas tree figurines, or some small disco balls to help ring in the new year, a seasonal statement piece will add the final touch that’ll make your bar cart much merrier. Placing a group of candles, reindeer or tree figurines, or decorative presents on one side of the tabletop spread can add height and a tasteful asymmetry to the display for a look of artful elegance.
Turnt Up
Use a stylish turntable or lazy Susan to display your bottles of bubbly! Easily access everyone’s go-to beverage while keeping your bottles, decanters, and stemware organized. Display a lazy Susan that matches your interior aesthetic to keep things looking classy. Opt for a marble turntable if your style is modern or glam, an acacia piece if your preference is boho, Scandi, or rustic, or a copper lazy Susan if you like urban interiors. Add spruces of faux holly or even freshly cut pine needles from your tree to keep things festive.
Tabletop Garnish
One way to kick your cocktails up a notch is with festive garnishes, and the possibilities are nearly endless. From citrus to herbs, you can double your delectable garnishes as décor. Place a bowl of oranges, lemons, or limes at one corner of the cabinet for easy access to a tangy topper. Zhuzh up your holiday display with rolls of cinnamon sticks or pomegranates placed strategically next to your stemware and bottles. Keep a marble, ceramic, or acacia wood pinch bowl with salt, rosemary, or mint at the ready for whatever request is thrown your way. You are the bartender, after all.
Non-Alcoholic Alternatives
You or your guests not social drinkers? Craft a cozy cider or cocoa cart and have everyone bring their favorite hot beverages and garnishes. Be prepared to offer your guests a chocolatey or spiced treat with a decked-out station fully equipped with candy canes, eggnog, cookies, marshmallows, and all the holiday goodies.
How will you make your bar cabinet look its best for the most wonderful time of year? Show us your festively curated carts of cocktails or cocoa and tag us on Instagram at @walkeredisonco!
