Assembling a Bar Cart

A few years back we stayed in an AirB&B condo that had an old-school bar cart from the 60s. We thought it was fun, and it continued to come up in conversations since. I started looking at bar cart pictures, especially on Pinterest, and since I couldn't shake the idea, I decided to buy and set one up for my husband for Christmas. I started by watching for an inexpensive cart on Craig's List, or a utility cart that I could convert into a bar cart, but as I looked at options, none of them were appealing. One issue I couldn't resolve is that most utility carts don't come with side rails to keep your bottles and glasses on the shelves. I started looking for new bar carts online, and they ranged from relatively cheap and ugly to really expensive and ugly. The whole gold rail and mirrors/glass thing didn't fit with our style or décor, and most carts didn't actually offer a lot of shelf real estate- it made no sense to have a cart that could only hold a couple of things.

Google image shopping turned me on to a nice-looking and practical bar cart that was actually offered by Target, the Ronay model, that had three shelves including a removable top tray. It came in three colors and was made of solid wood, not particle board. It was a bit expensive at $304, but at the time I found it, there was a 25% furniture sale for one more day, plus with my son's employee discount and Target Card discount I got it for $157 with tax and free shipping. Nice deal!

The cart arrived quickly, within a couple of days. It's a good thing we come into the house through the garage and that my husband usually misses packages left by our front door, because he didn't notice it when he got home first. I had to wait until he was occupied and then try to sneak the enormous box into the house. The box was bulky, was sitting in snow, and weighted 63 lbs, so I had to wrestle and maneuver it through the door because I wasn't able to lift it. I stashed it behind the dining room table where he wouldn't see it and waited a few days until he was out of the house to assemble it.

The assembly directions where printed on five sheets of paper. I had to identify all of the pieces, including several sizes of bolts, and read the instructions through a couple of times, but over the course of about 90 min and two cups of coffee, it actually assembled nicely and without a lot of confusion. I had to find a hiding spot for the assembled cart, which involved hefting its bulk up a flight of stairs, but I got it safely stashed.

Now, to outfitting it.
We had a number of items already, so I picked up a wooden box to store bar utensils in, a small 4-bottle wine rack from Amazon, and some fun stainless swizzle sticks. I also bought a personalized bar towel off Etsy.

It was a surprise for my husband for Christmas, and we enjoyed using it the first time with guests for Christmas dinner.

Addendum:

After traveling to Hawaii in June 2022, I was pining for my own "tiki" bar, so I pimped our cart up a bit with a reed screen cut to size and tied on (not permanent).