On the list of “necessary” furniture, pieces like the sofa, bed frame, and even the office chair probably take precedence. But the best bar carts could easily elbow their way into the “must-have” category depending on how well-stocked your liquor supplies are, or what you’re using them for to begin with. Because while its moniker might seem to narrowly define what you might actually want to stock on its shelves—namely bottles of booze, drinking glasses, shaking and stirring accessories, or other cocktail accoutrements—the bar cart is really whatever you need it to be.
The Best Bar Carts, at a Glance
Those bottles won’t put themselves away. All of our favorite bar carts, no chaser necessary.
Is it a nightstand? A side table? Listen: It’s a glorified shelf. It’s also the item that you can have the most fun with in terms of out-there designs. A funky sofa is great, but after you post it to the ‘gram once, it kind of loses its appeal. That bar cart, however, might very well become the centerpiece of your home. From spacious rolling carts you can stuff to the gills with every bottle that’s been foisted on to you at house parties to skinny legends that are compact enough to squeeze in between cabinets, these are the best bar carts for every style and budget.
The Best Bar Cart, Overall: Umbra Bellwood
At just under $200, Umbra’s Bellwood is easily the handsomest among its peers at this price point. It features a slim profile for even the most cramped quarters, and generously spaced double-decker shelves offer ample storage for your fattest handles or slimmest bottles. The Bellwood’s sturdy wheels could easily make its way across rocky terrain, even if that “rocky terrain” is a pile of dirty socks lining the hallway from your dining room to your bedroom. Also, both of its trays are removable to make serving your guests table-side martinis easy, almost like you run one of the best bars in the world.
The Best Budget Bar Cart: Ikea Nissafors
The Ikea Nissafors is a pack mule of a bar cart. It prioritizes storage space without any bells or whistles, like dedicated storage spaces for glassware. Depending on the thickness of your bottles, you can probably store up to 15 of your favorite whiskies, vodkas, or wines on each shelf with space to spare. We wished its wheels would lock, but if you have enough bottles on this thing, it’s not going anywhere. At $30, you could spend a lot more for something that offers way less.
The Best Splurge Bar Cart: Ghetto Gastro x USM Black Power Kitchen Cart
USM Haller’s designhead-approved collection of modular storage is some of the best in the business and endlessly able to adapt what you need, whether you’re trying to get your personal files in order or keep that growing collection of rare wines and liquor from falling and breaking. In collaboration with the Bronx-based kitchen collective Ghetto Gastro, the Black Power Kitchen Cart is a streamlined take on one of USM’s trolleys with accented hits of red and green, Ghetto Gastro’s signature colors. Like the cargo pants of bar carts, this collab piece has a plethora of storage options from sliding trays to a spacious bottom cabinet, accessible through two drop-down doors. It’s built for way more than holding just bar tools, and for those short on kitchen cabinets, this thing could probably hold all of your cooking and dining essentials with room for more.
The Best Mid-Century Modern Bar Cart: West Elm
The mid-century modern aesthetic has passed through “trend” status, and in some ways, become the default design language for furniture. This one from West Elm is maybe a little too blond to have sat in the Mad Men offices, but it would easily keep Don Draper hydrated. Much-appreciated brass rails protect the precious cargo on both shelves from tipping over, plus adds a welcome accent that elevates the straightforward squared-off shape. Matching brass-tone casters mean you can bring the drinks to the party, instead of vice versa.
The Best Industrial Bar Cart: Urban Outfitters Victoria, $199
Urban Outfitters’ furniture department has quietly become a gold mine of affordable standouts hidden behind a pile of graphic tees and fast fashion. The brand’s Victoria bar cart brings a softened industrial-style seriousness with its curvy, matte metal frame and—surprise!—two elegant mirrored shelves. Also, the four wheels are a nice upgrade over the usual two, which require ever-so-gently wheelbarrowing your cocktail corner around at juuuuust the right angle.
The Best Compact Bar Cart for Small Spaces: Yamazaki Home Slim Rolling Storage Cart
Not to be confused with the Japanese whisky brand of the same name, Yamazaki (Home) makes some of the best home decor and storage solutions at Ikea-level prices. Its slim storage cart is the answer for those looking to add more storage space to a home that seemingly can’t even make room for you. The storage cart is not designed expressly as a bar cart, but it’s built to be slim enough to fit in the space between a kitchen counter and an oven—or enough to hold a neat row of your finest bottles. There’s a great amount of storage space—three shelves, plus whatever you can put on top—and that handle for toting the thing around is also great to hang a dish towel for those inevitable bar-tending messes.
The Best Outdoor Bar Cart: Blu Dot Longday
You have the swanky outdoor furniture, and now you have to get the right bar cart to complement it. You can’t put just anything out there (do you like mold and rust?) so you have to find something suitable for the outdoors, like this option from Blu Dot, that looks just as good inside as it does with that excellent outdoor sofa. Its jumbo contrasting wheels evoke Alvar Aalto’s iconic tea trolley as a subtle design flex, and Blu Dot even throws in an additional cutting board that fits perfectly on the top shelf so you can slice oranges, stuff olives, or peel a lemon twist. Also, both shelves are vented so water—from rain or spills—doesn’t pool and attract those pesky mosquitoes.
4 More Bar Carts We Like
For a bit of a more Art Deco style, the Arcade bar cart combines various geometric shapes that’ll have you thinking you had one too many drinks. The curvy metal frame keeps things from rolling onto the floor, and the plywood shelves and oversized wheels make this look like an adult version of a build-your-own Go Kart.
If you’re hosting large shindigs on the regular but don’t want to shell out hundreds of dollars for something like the Dune above, Wayfair also sells a retro-looking utility cart that’s commercial-grade for catering and warehouse-use. Nice thing is, it looks just as respectable in a splashy kitchen or dining area, storing hors d’oeuvres and bottles on its spacious shelves and rolling wherever it’s needed courtesy of its 360-degree spinner wheels.
Hay’s playful Danish designs are a shortcut to adding some fun to any spot—and if that’s your goal, then the frilly Arcs trolley delivers. The scalloped rim is whimsical without being cheesy (if a little precarious—maybe put the bottles on the bottom). There’s also a two-shelf version, and other non-boring colors to choose from, if you’re not looking for this one’s triple-decker bus vibes.
Here’s the bar cart epitome of “simple but effective.” A metal body with all right angles, two glass shelves with raised perimeters, and four wheels is all it takes for you to put your bottles on display. If you’re not looking to bring goth-Vader vibes to your space, there are also brass and satin-nickel options.
Herman Miller created the OE1 series of office furniture to suit an environment in which everyone needed different configurations for their ever-growing (and changing) homes. Which is to say, this trolley isn’t specifically a bar cart—yet somehow makes for the perfect bar cart. Because the bottom shelf has that tall third wall, you can choose to keep your bottle collection on display or hidden away—or treat the OE1 trolley like a rolling bar, complete with a bartender (you) using the top shelf to mix up cocktails for everyone.
Ferm Living’s bar cart isn’t cheap, but that’s the cost of an all-aluminum piece of functional furniture that doubles as a statement sculpture. The Brutalist cart’s asymmetrical design can accommodate a dive bar’s worth of cocktail accessories and bottles—probably the top-shelf kind.
How to Stock a Bar Cart
After you’ve secured your bar cart, then the real fun begins: filling it up. “I am all for a cute stocked bar cart with beautiful accessories and bottles, but it also needs to be functional,” says Natalie Migliarini, author of “Beautiful Booze: Beautiful Booze: Stylish Cocktails to Make at Home Hardcover.”
As a professional drinker, Migliarni suggests you stock your cart with the essential spirits for most the classic cocktails, which means “gin and vodka for martinis, Campari for Negronis, and a couple of bottles of whiskey for Old Fashioned cocktails.”
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