stocked bar cart essentials (with chairish)

chairish-style-board — Everything you need to get your bar cart started (clockwise, from top left): Gold + Marble Barware Collection by West Elm, $63 // Vintage Brass Plate Tantalus Bar Set available at Chairish, $150 // Monogrammed Cocktail Napkin from Anthropologie, $8 each // Marta Double Old-Fashioned Glasses in Midnight Blue from CB2, $3 each // Matte Gold Japanese Cocktail Shaker from Food52, $124 // White Milk Pressed Glass Goblets from Chairish, $59 for four // Chairish Bar Cart (many vintage options available)

Happy (almost) weekend! Are you ready? I know it’s only Thursday, but — are you ready? I am.

In anticipation of the chilly weather we’re about to have, today I’m sharing a roundup of some essentials for a stocked bar cart. I happen to love a good bar cart, even though we don’t own one (our buffet server, which we bought in Bali many years ago, serves that function for us). Recently, though, the folks at Chairish reached out to me and asked me to style one of their bar carts for them. If you haven’t heard of Chairish, think of it as a fantastic online flea market for home design and decor lovers. The site has lots of great products for curating your home in an eclectic, unique style, and you can sell your own vintage pieces through their easy (and free) listing service.

I spent way too much time scrolling through Chairish’s thousands of listings. Since we moved into our home last year, we’ve used IKEA to help us with the basics, and now that we’re settled, I’d like to add a few pieces here and there that make our home feel personal and pulled together. Chairish is great for that. But I digress.

Really, what we’re here to talk about is how you need a bar cart and some easy, fun pieces that would round out your bar essentials.

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1. Bar Tools. I picked a brassy, large-wheeled brass bar cart from Chairish as the showpiece. Brass is making a comeback in small, measured doses, and I think the key here is to make your choice of brass intentional. That’s where these gorgeous bar tools on a marble stand from West Elm ($63) come in. They complement the bright metal bamboo rails in the bar cart perfectly. Continuing the brass theme with this vintage bar set from Chairish ($150) for your basic liquors also ties in with the brass accents on the bar cart. I’m a total nerd for fonts, and I love that block lettering on the glass bottles. Of course, good home decorators will tell you that you should group items into threes, so I also picked this gorgeous matte cocktail shaker from Food 52 ($124).

2. (Real) Linen Cocktail Napkins. Right after our wedding, someone gifted us some cloth cocktail-sized napkins with our initials on them, and I love them to this day. Using linen cocktail napkins, even if it’s just for yourself on a weeknight, brings a sense of occasion to any happy hour, especially one at home. Plus, the paper ones always get super soggy quickly, especially if you’re having an iced cocktail.

3. Glassware. We have a bunch of simple clear glassware. Actually, we have way too much glassware, mainly because the hubby and I have this irrational fear that all of our glasses will break at a party and we’ll be left with nothing but red solo cups (although I guess when we were in our 20s this wouldn’t have been the worst thing). If I had my druthers, though, I’d love to start our glassware collection over with a mix of modern and vintage glass. A great way to mix things up is to incorporate colored glass into your bar setup, like with these midnight blue double old-fashioned glasses from CB2 ($3). For vintage pieces, I think the key is to find timeless pieces that will transition well over time. Even though the shape and design of these milk glass goblets from Chairish ($59 for a set of four) is unconventional, I think the simple white milk glass is a great universal style that will be classic for years to come. I can just see sipping some Pinot from these milk white goblets while fanning yourself on a patio somewhere and sighing, “I do declare..” Not that I’ve given this imaginary scenario any thought, of course.

So there you have it — you, too, can make a couple of easy pieces can make a vintage bar cart seem fresh and modern. What do you think should be an essential to a well-stocked bar cart?

For more ideas and pieces to add to your next cocktail party, visit Chairish here.