Bar Carts x Wine Swaps
Hands down the hardest working piece of furniture in our home is our Serena & Lily bar cart. We bought it five or so years ago when we were living in an apartment in Stamford, CT and were tight on space. We used it as a bar cart tucked neatly in a corner but could pull it out and use it to display appetizers, cheese boards, name cards for a dinner party - it was and still is such a staple in our home! We even used it as a nightstand in our rental when we first moved back to West Hartford. I haven’t yet found an apartment or home that it doesn’t naturally find a place in.
As you know, we are in the middle of a 1.0 kitchen remodel and decided to remove the cabinets beneath the breakfast bar and dismantle the cramped eat-in area of our kitchen. Once again our bar cart found a happy home in the newly open area, styled with a simple navy tray and a few vintage books with a chunk of granite we found on the beach in Kennebunkport (pictured in the map above it :)
Now that we’ve converted this space into a true breakfast bar complete with our favorite stools we put our cart back in the dining room just in time for the holidays. We were prepping our home for the holidays and I quickly flipped our cart into a neat but functional garland-making station. It contained the mess of the needles and also looked beautiful enough that I could leave it that way for a few days while I made my way through our home and finished our tablescape.
On Saturday night we hosted our 8th Annual Wine Swap and once again I restyled the cart (love this one too, for even tighter spaces!) to make a home for the 24+ (!!) bottles of wine we had in our swap this year. The swap tradition started almost 10 years ago when my roommate and I wanted to throw a holiday party but, like everyone else, we were broke. We decided to fund a small keg and a few boxes of wine and ask everyone to bring a bottle (or box…) of their favorite wine to swap or share. We’d number every bottle as our guests arrived and once our beverages started to dwindle we asked everyone to pick a number out of a bowl. You then could open your bottle and keep the merriment going or bring it home to enjoy later. The tradition continued when C and I moved into a tiny little two-story apartment (400 sq ft is generous) and we’d pack over 50 people in every year.
Over the years it’s gotten more sophisticated (this year our friends actually brewed a keg of peanut butter stout for everyone to try - amazing!) and the wine selection is something all now look forward to. We are happy to keep everyone’s champagne glass full and for the most part everyone leaves with a bottle which is such a nice holiday treat. It’s our favorite event to host each year and our bar cart has been part of the tradition for over five years now!
We look forward to passing this little cart down to Nell one day… I can’t imagine it will ever go out of style and I’m sure it will always remind her of family celebrations as she gets older (fun fact: we also dressed it up to hold her first birthday cake!).
Thank you Serena & Lily for always being our favorite home brand and for sponsoring this post.
First and last photo by Amy Patrice
