Setting Up a Glamorous Home Bar: Ideas from Real Life Homes

The popularity of cocktails is on the rise, and the home bar is making a comeback in the American home. But even if you’re not lucky enough to have a wet bar, you can still set up a dedicated space for mixing drinks, no matter the size of your home. Read on for plenty of ideas from our tours.

Above: Marina has a fairly impressive collection of liquor that lives on the kitchen countertop in her New York apartment. A tray and a mirror behind help give this collection of bottles a little bit of presence.

If you’re going to be mixing serious cocktails, it’s always good to have a sink nearby, so the kitchen countertop is a good spot (if you’ve got the space). Kim and Scott set up a countertop bar, accompanied by a helpful message, in their Chicago home.

Liquor, glassware, and cocktailing implements occupy a series of corner shelves in Clara and Sam’s home in Oakland, California.

Bar carts, like this stylish one seen in Candace and Jason’s Los Angeles home, are as flexible as they are beautiful — you can just roll them around to wherever the action is.

Alex and Zack turned a nook in the living room of their San Francisco home into a bar.

This bar cart, spotted in Kate and Chad’s Chicago home, does double duty as a side table — a perfect solution for small spaces.

A red tray sets off the liquor collection in Sooz Gordon’s Scottish flat.

The top of a buffet and some wall mounted shelves above make a charming spot for serving drinks in Charmaine and Mark’s home in Wisconsin.

In a pinch, the top of a bookcase will do. A tray helps draw everything together, as seen in Sarah and David’s Brooklyn home.

And finally, one more bar cart setup, from Natalie and Seth’s San Francisco home.