A bar cart serves two purposes: to get your booze out from under the counter and to look good while doing so. But buying the right one depends largely on the same driving factors behind any important furniture decision — your space, your budget and your taste.
Ikea Raskog
We begin with a cart that’s not even technically a bar cart, but for those of us in tiny apartments with even tinier budgets, it can work. This Ikea product is a heavy steel covered with an epoxy powder coating.
Target Project 62 Glasgow
Don’t let preconceptions about price or Target’s brand fool you, the powder-coated steel Glasgow bar cart (along with the rest of the Glasgow collection) is anything but cheaply made. This heavy-duty, minimal bar cart reps plenty of storage, utility and might just be the best cheap bar cart money can buy (also, color options!).
Greyleigh Crofton
Affordable, space-saving utility. That’s what this pick from Wayfair represents. A wine rack and stemware toting bottom level is crowned by a spot for your booze to sit.
World Market Acrylic
Acrylic anything is a tough sell until you see how well it can work in a finished room. This all-acrylic bar cart from World Market plays beautifully with natural light and the glass bottles you’ll stock it with. Just make sure to dust it regularly, as it’ll become splotchy very quickly.
West Elm Parker
This is how you do mid-century modern that looks great, doesn’t cost a fortune and won’t be a disappointment the moment you put it on display. West Elm’s walnut veneered eucalyptus bar cart rocks real brass finishes and detailing and wheels if you actually plan on moving it.
Serena & Lily Monaco
The world needs to re-embrace rattan furniture. This triple-shelved bar cart from Serena & Lily is made by hand and rocks brass wheels. If you’re a tiki person, this is your bar cart.
Crate & Barrel Libations
Crate & Barrel’s clean-lined bar cart is plated with powder-coated, matte finished brass, rocks a tempered glass top level and, more subtley, features rubber wheels (this means you’ll actually be able to wheel it around if need be). Fun fact: this bar cart was once a fixture in the Gear Patrol offices.
Matégot Trolley
The products in Gubi’s Danish stocklists are part past, part present, and Mathieu Matégot’s eponymous bar cart is no different. This bar cart was designed more than 60 years ago (though it doesn’t look it) and features perforated metal shelves, a newspaper holder and lots of beautiful bent metal.
Restoration Hardware 1950s Milo
Restoration Hardware’s homage to Milo Baughman’s mid-century classic is a stunner. All steel, finished in either brass or brushed nickel and with tempered glass shelves, this is a power move in bar-cart form.
Møller Trolley
Want to know what that West Elm bar cart from earlier was (likely) based on? It’s this. The Møller Trolley is capable of serving as a bar cart, trolley, mobile cocktail mixing station or whatever else you have in mind. The 1952 design was revived by DWR and is available exclusively through high design retailer.