Styling a Holiday-Ready Bar Cart

It wasn't until our little guy's CONSTANT offer to help us with Christmas decorating turned into an ultimatum ("are we putting up our tree today?"), that I finally dug out our Christmas decorations.  Am I ever glad that the Mr. had the foresight to separate the Christmas decor from the rest of the decor boxes.  It didn't make the discovery process any less overwhelming though.  Just to name a few greeneries - I forgot I had 4 pre-lit garlands, 1 tall Christmas tree, a short one, 2 pre-lit outdoor trees, and 3 wreaths... not sure if I missed anything else.  Did the little man actually help?  Yes, sort of.  Did we put up every one of these greenery?  Uh...  how about you take a look for yourself here...

The Christmas tree?  Done!  The staircase?  Check.  Coffee table?  Still reinventing.  Entryway table.  Finalized.  

Oh, that was a lot of work.  I need a drink...  now!

Lucky for me that our bar cart is holiday ready!  Here are a few quick tips to get yours looking pretty and functional to impress your guests!

1. The Obvious

Liquors / Glassware / Barware

Have a few bottles of your favourite drinks on hand.  For the holidays, champagne is always a good idea!  Sparkling wine, red wine, and champagne are constant staples at our house.  We keep the tall bottles on the bottom tier of the bar cart so that little man's freely swinging crazy arms won't knock down any. 

It makes sense to put out on the bar cart the glassware for what you usually consume.  For safety reasons (see above), we put our stemware in our kitchen cabinet.  The top of our bar cart now has a pretty display of our rocks glasses and handy bar accessories.

2. The Decor

Greenery

A touch of green livens up any decorated space, even one as tiny as the bar cart.  Here, just a sprig of holly leaves and berries in the corner makes the bar cart all the more welcoming.

GREENERY FROM BOWRING (SIMILAR ARRANGEMENT AT TARGET)

Artwork

On the wall or on the bar cart, the artwork completes the look of the cart by giving it height and a touch of sophistication.  On ours, I used a mixology recipe book with a pretty cover that does double duty, perched onto an acrylic easel.

THE ART OF MIXOLOGY (AFFILIATED LINK); ACRYLIC EASEL FROM CB2

Tray

Having a tray on any surface helps to corral items and contain mess.  Here, I DIY'ed a tray for glassware using duct tape, inspired by Megan's shoe box tray.  The copper foil tape helps hide my DIY mess and nicely mimics the gold rim on the highball glasses.

SCOTCH DUCT TAPE IN PRETTY SNAKE (AFFILIATED LINK); FOIL TAPE FROM MICHAELS

Seasonal Decor

Dress up the bar cart with some small scale seasonal decor so that it's ready for any party thrown its way!  I had limited space on ours, so a small bowl of mini candy canes and a whimsical display of ornaments in a lighted cloche are plenty enough.  

Feeling Adventurous

Yes, I know, less is more when it comes to decor.  But for some, decor and alcohol draws a fine line.  Who can resist these cute mini bottles of liquors, or a dazzling bottle stopper on Jonathan Adler's Animalia coasters?  I may just add some playful cocktail napkins and fun straws to the mix!

JONATHAN ADLER ANIMALIA COASTERS; BOTTLE STOPPER FROM HOMESENSE (WHAT I REALLY LOVE)

Prepping a bar cart for the holidays is no different than decorating any space in your home.  Starting with the basics in #1, and then adding in layers of #2 takes minimal effort but will surely leave your guests impressed.  Just make sure you restock the empty bottles while you're at it!

Playroom Painted in a Shade of Gray

On nights when The Mr. "indulges" himself with his pet DIY project, our walk-in closet/ dressing room, little man would busy himself with his own Lego design and build projects or other master art pieces.  These are quiet nights for me when they're on their own; no floor hockey/ goalie plays and no gunning battles in the basement family room.  But I can't help but notice little man lacks a space to play and make art.

Little man has never had his own work space.  The dining room table has been his creative space since he first picked up a crayon eons ago.  Now that we've moved into our new house though, we don't want his masterpieces to take over the dining table.  

That's when I finally dug out my plan for his playroom, as posted here.

The playroom is a spare third bedroom upstairs, and not a big room at all.  To save some space, we got him a desk instead of that IKEA round table.

I still love the style of this Target Campaign desk from when I wrote about the perfect desk for him, and this one is bang for the buck since I got it on sale!  The drawers will be perfect for all the papers and other miscellaneous items.

Target Threshold Campaign Desk

As another spin to my original design board, I found the cutest and fun rug for the playroom!  The Union Jack rug from Ecarpet Gallery totally fits my budget and the fun factor of the playroom.  

Union Jack rug by Ecarpet Gallery

The colours are mixed and woven in a way to give the rug a vintage vibe.

That's a lot of red in the room with the desk, but I don't mind it being more playful.  Who knows?  The red may help spark more creativity in the little man =)

In anticipation of taking delivery of the desk, we painted the playroom a light gray last weekend.  I loved the soft gray in this room by Amanda Moore of Hunter Baby.

via

I have been on the hunt for the perfect gray ever since seeing it used in this room.  Not going to inject another "50 shades of gray" joke here, but that number is an understatement!  If you've been sourcing grays, you would know all about the tinted grays!  I just wanted a gray that's, well, gray.  So I decided to try out the ever popular Benjamin Moore Gray Owl, and the just as amazing trick, at 50% tint.

Here is little man's playroom after painted in Gray Owl.  This shade of gray suits the playroom decor perfectly.  With just a tiny bit of tan, it picks up the vintagy vibe of the desk (to be delivered) and rug just right.  

The playroom doesn't really need black-out curtains or too much privacy.  We chose to outfit the large window with simple sheers from IKEA on a track system by Allen + Roth.  

Allen + Roth curtain Rod

As you can see in the photo above, little man has gradually moved into his new playroom, no invitation required :-)  Funny how he lugged his beloved Lego in the playroom first, and I take it he's loving the space already!  I can't wait to put the playroom together for him!

Next up for the playroom:

• Toy storage unit
• Gallery wall - these frames with plastic front from IKEA are safe for a kid's space
• Masterpiece display
• Lounging spot
• Light fixture

New Kitchen Update - Integrated Hood + Upper Cabinets

SEE OUR MOST RECENT KITCHEN UPDATE!

Um...  did you notice that we have yet to post a photo of our kitchen with the upper cabinets?  That was because it looked horrific with the builder's hood vent + the dinky cabinet they so considerately installed to cover the vent.  (By code, the builder has to provide a hood vent in order for the house to close.)  

Here goes...  cover your eyes...  This is what we're trying to forget - how the hood vent looked like for the past month.  It's certainly got the "wow" factor, in a bad way ;-)

Photo taken on the day we closed the house, before any appliances were delivered.

I figured nobody would notice when we featured our new superwhite countertop...

But the time has come for a reveal of the upper cabinets... 

Here was how we had envisioned this new kitchen will be, using IKEA's kitchen building tool.

And here it is, after we've gotten rid of the builder's hood vent and hideous cover-up.  

The installation of the hood revolved around the logistics of the hood cabinet.  Our integrated hood requires the bottom of the hood cabinet to be cut to size before installation.  However, we were forbidden by the builder to contact the kitchen supplier until we have closed on the house, and in effect, delayed the installation of our hood until now.

Earlier this week, the kitchen supplier finally came to install the hood cabinet.

To backtrack a bit, the grey cabinet colour was a mystery to us.  We couldn't tell how light the grey would be on the maple doors based on an oak sample door at the builder's decor centre, but we took a risk ordering this light grey "Platinum" anyway.  That was back in February of 2014, and the suspense for this 1+ year was unbearable!  I had since then browsed all over the internet trying to figure out what this platinum cabinet colour could look like.  

Although we originally wanted a darker grey similar to the IKEA grey, this light grey turned out to be just grey enough.  With limited natural light going into the kitchen, darker cabinet doors would make the kitchen look like a dark hole in the middle of the house.  So the risk we took actually worked out for us!

While we were at it, we also changed out the upper cabinet doors at the fridge wall to glass doors.  We finally got the upper cabinets to look how we planned for them - a muted clean look with them level all across.  

The glass doors help to break out the wall of solid doors on the adjacent wall and create a design element.  They give the illusion of a more open space, and act as a display cabinet for our drinkware and other decor items.  We'll eventually change those shelves to glass shelves to complete the look. 

When the Mr. has some time, he can build us the pots and pans drawers for the lower cabinets, for which we had some custom drawer fronts made.  With all the drawer building experience that the Mr. has with the closet, he can now whip them up in no time, saving us hundreds from going with the builder's version.

Designing our kitchen has been a fun and enjoyable process, from picking out our cabinet colour to choosing our appliances, to shopping for our countertop slabs and cabinet pulls.  Although the level of customization is not to the extent of a full kitchen reno, we still put a lot of thought into making this kitchen function efficiently as the heart of the house.  A little research and some customizations with the builder later, we have a kitchen with good bones that we can take further ourselves.

For now, I would consider the kitchen's bones pretty much in place.  Next up for the kitchen will be to:  

• Change out knobs for uppers and pulls for lower cabinets
• Install Backsplash
• Install mirror backing in glass upper cabinets
• Install under-cabinet lighting
• Replace slim cabinet crowns under the bulkhead with thicker crowns.  Love this by Sarah Richardson.
• DIY another island upgrade, see what The Mr. did at our previous house

Not too bad, considering we've done all these: 

• Do something about that dead corner storage - DONE
• Install panels on appliances - DONE
• Replace countertop/ sink/ faucet - DONE
• Replace solid upper cabinet doors on fridge wall with glass doors - DONE
• see Design Board

While being esthetically pleasing on its own, the kitchen design should also complement the overall design scheme of the house.  Our kitchen is on its way to glam-ification, slowly. I'm glad the changes we made to the builder's kitchen have added counter space, helping Chef Honey to churn out meals efficiently.  So far, he hasn't complained about the lack of counter space.  *Phew!*

Check out our original posts of this kitchen design:

Trendspotting - Kitchen Design

Kitchen appliance choices to free up counter space  

Range hood and minimalist kitchen design  

Kitchen countertops - marble and look-alike alternatives  

Our marble alternative kitchen countertop revealed!