Design Under the Influence: Bar Carts

It's Erika from small shop, and I just want to say, thank you for coming back for another "Design Under the Influence!" This week I wanted to do something light and fluffy: the bar cart. It's no surprise that the bar cart/table became widely popular in the 1940's when prohibition ended and everyone could enjoy a beverage out in the open...and did they ever! Particularly with summer entertaining, hostesses would wheel out the beverage cart onto the patio to serve guests en plein air. In the 1960's, movies with the Rat Pack, to James Bond, to Audrey and Cary, made cocktail hour and cocktail displays a permanent fixture. But in the 1970's and 1980's, an era of built-in cabinetry made the bar cart obsolete. Now we're seeing a resurgence of the bar cart, and I for one could not be more thrilled! What a fantastically fun way to dress up a nook of your home, while making guests feel festive all the same. Even if you don't entertain often, think of it as an excuse to create an artful display of pretty bottles and glassware.