Julie's Dining Room: Bar Tray

Ever since vintage bar carts started popping up everywhere, I haven't been able to get them out of my head.

The Decorista

Sigh. They're so darn pretty...

I've done some serious Craigslist/flea market stalking trying to find the perfect one for my dining room, but never found anything that was inexpensive and good looking.  I decided to stop obsessing about the cart, and just this week realized that instead of a bar cart, making a bar on the top of my dresser buffet might be my best bet for three reasons:

1.  it will make my dresser look a little bit less like a dresser and more like a buffet until it can find its way back to a bedroom

2.  the right tray will cover up the water rings left on the dresser top by yours truly.  True confession: I hate coasters
3.  it might give me the look of a bar cart with a much smaller price tag

Although not as Don Draper as bar carts, I really love the look of bar trays.

We still had some Crate and Barrel gift cards from our wedding (2 years ago...) and I was thrilled to find this tray at the Madison Avenue store (note: the tray is being discontinued, so if you want one grab it now!).

I love the brass accents, which remind me of campaign style furniture.  The tray is also really big (24" wide by 16" deep) so I knew it work really well as a bar tray.  After picking up the tray, it was time to accessorize.  Our mom was in town, and like me, has no shame.  We went straight to the liquor store and started grabbing bottles that we thought would look work well grouped together.  As we were arranging our bottles into different sets, employees would walk by and ask us if we had any questions to which we replied "No, we're just looking for pretty bottles."  Sorry we're not sorry, liquor snobs.

I stopped at our local thrift store and picked up this...thingy.  I'm not sure what to call it, but I know that it's pretty, brass, cost $10, and clearly is supposed to serve alcohol.  I love the bird detail.

  We put everything together and it now looks a little something like this:

The glasses are also from Crate and Barrel, glass coasters are from Williams Sonoma and the vase is Tiffany. Again, excuse the iPhone pictures...fail.  Complete dining room pictures coming soon!

For those not convinced by the bar tray, and who have given up on their local Craigslist, Ballard Designs has a (fairly) reasonably priced option that we really love:

Ballard Bar Cart

"The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind."  Humphrey Bogart, you nailed it.