Best bar carts 2024: stylish storage indoors and outdoors
If you're looking for style options as well as storage solutions, the best bar carts are everything you need. They'll endlessly elevate any room.
Every room could use a bar cart. These simple but sophisticated staples make for beautiful storage. They're much more elegant than just leaving your bottles out on display.
The best bar carts are also convenient. They save you from dashing to the kitchen every time you need to fix a drink. But while originally designed to store liquor and wine, they're also perfect for a coffee nook. It goes beyond drinks, too - lots of people use them for craft materials or to display houseplants or coffee table books.
Our interiors experts are full of bar cart styling ideas, and in the interior design world there are few products that will blend style and functionality like a bar cart will.
As an ecommerce editor, I'm a full-time shopping expert. I looked through a range of stores and hundreds of options to find the very best bar carts for your home. From modern marvels to vintage classic, these are my favorites.
Best Wooden Bar Carts
I love wooden furniture. The natural tone and grain of wood sets a tasteful and organic tone in a room. All of these bar carts have minimalist silhouettes, so they will seamlessly fit into your spaces. They're also made with premium woods, designed to last a long time. The teak trolley can even go outside too.
Best for books
Dimensions: 32 x 19.9 x 32
Material: FSC-certified wood and brass
Location: Indoor
Bar carts make wonderful, portable bookshelves. This has brilliant rails around the side to support stacking your favorite reads. Made with FSC-certified, kiln dried wood, it has a rich acorn finish and antique brass details.
Best for small spaces
Dimensions: 32.75 x 18 x 34.75
Material: Mango wood and marble
Location: Indoor
Lulu and Georgia make some beautiful bar carts. They have other premium wooden models, all of which are brilliant for small spaces, but this is my favorite. They're compact and top-quality.
Best for outdoors
Dimensions: 32.5 x 16.5 x 42
Material: Teak
Location: Indoor and outdoor
This is the ultimate outdoor bar cart. Crafted from premium, durable teak wood, you can keep it outside or inside. The push handle, spacious drawer, and extendable slatted top makes it extremely versatile too - it's as handy for potting up plants as it is for mixing a drink al fresco.
Best Metal Bar Carts
Easy to clean, metal bar carts are sturdy and practical. They often have an industrial chic look, which I love. I'd recommend these for bar carts plants, bathroom products, or anything that's likely to spill or leak, because they'll be the easiest bar carts to clean.
Best for plants
Dimensions: 36 x 19 x 32.5
Material: Powder coated iron
Location: Indoor and outdoor
This botanical charmer is perfect for cultivating a plant paradise. The sturdy iron framework will look as good inside as it does outside. The spacious tiers will cater to even your tallest plants too.
Best for bathrooms
Dimensions: 36 x 19 x 32.5
Material: Powder-coated iron
Location: Indoor and outdoor
Organization applies to the whole house, especially the bathroom. This retro design is simple and easy to clean, and it's a more colorful option than lots of the other bar carts on the market.
Best for wine
Dimensions: 31.5 x 15.8 x 37.8
Material: Iron and MDF
Location: Indoor and outdoor
Every mixologist's dream, this bar cart has three, removable trays and enough capacity for 12 bottles and 10 stem glasses. It's everything you need to uncork your inner bartender.
Best Mixed Material Bar Carts
Mixing materials, whether it's metal and glass, or metal and wood, is an excellent way to create two dimensions of aesthetic appeal to a room. Gold, for example, looks really sophisticated, but without some natural stone or wood, it can look quite cold. If you pair it with glass, it will look really elegant, but might be harder to clean. There are endless material combinations that you could use, so here's a list with one for every home.
Most premium
Dimensions: 26.49 x 17 x 34.84
Material: Glass and metal
Location: Indoor
This luxurious design has all functions covered. The simple gold frame is classic, whilst the pale marble shelves will endlessly elevate your room. There's space for wine glasses and your favorite liquors.
Best affordable
Dimensions: 26.49 x 17 x 34.84
Material: Glass and metal
Location: Indoor
Crafted with a focus on value, without compromising on aesthetics, this bar cart is perfect for entertaining on a budget. There are other low-cost options like this one from Amazon, but the Fitzgerald is my favorite.
Best for Coffee
Dimensions: 39.4 x 15.7 x 35.4
Material: Steel and MDF
Location: Indoor and outdoor
This is the best cart for coffee. Make special use of the 12 mug hooks, syrup racks, and special place for your dish cloths. It's the perfect way to keep all of your coffee gadgets in one chic space.
Best circular design
Dimensions: 16.5 x 27.5
Material: Iron and glass
Location: Indoor
This elegant, circular bar cart is perfect for small spaces or if you want your trolley to double up as a side table. The wavy border on the top shelf brings a touch of French bistro style, perfect for any room.
Best for large rooms
Dimensions: 35.1 x 31.2 x 15.7
Material: Steel
Location: Indoor
Perfect for hospitality and style, this wide bar cart is all about space. The deep surface offers room for an extensive collection of bottles, books, candles, and any other pieces of décor that you want to store.
Best for crafts
Dimensions: 37 x 33 x 19.5
Material: Rattan and metal
Location: Indoor
This compact rattan cart is the epitome of laid-back luxury. Crafted from natural fibers, this cart brings warmth and texture to any room, perfect for your craft kits, whether they're paints or materials.
FAQs
Are bar carts good?
They're so much more than good. Bar carts are some of the best practical storage options that you can invest in. They'll make a stylish statement, but they're also a mobile storage unit for any of your hobbies.
Are bar carts practical?
Just because bar carts can look really beautiful, it doesn't mean that they're not practical. In fact, they're one of the most versatile pieces of furniture that you'll own. Some have fold-out tops, removable wheels, and adjustable trays. These are all features that you don't want to live without.
Are bar carts in style?
People think of bar carts and trolleys as retro, but, as with lots of 30s retro styles, these are back in fashion. They're sophisticated storage solutions that are becoming increasingly popular again.
Our Verdict
You might think of them as retro, but bar carts are back and there are some beautiful models on the market. I love the wooden ones, especially the teak trolley from Anthropologie. You can extend the leaves to maximize your space and wheel it inside and out. There's no limit to what that bar cart can do.
I would always recommend buying a minimalist bar cart, unless you have a purpose, such as wine storage in mind. A simple silhouette is the most versatile way to have a space-saving and stylish cart. Whether your hobby is coffee, crafts, plants, or wine, a bar cart will let you express your style whilst tidying your home up too.
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Laura is our eCommerce editor. As a fully qualified barista, she's our expert in all things coffee and has tested over thirty of the best coffee makers on the market. She has also interviewed Q-Graders and world-leading experts in the coffee industry, so has an intimate knowledge of all things coffee. Before joining Homes & Gardens, she studied English at Oxford University. Whilst studying, she trained as a master perfumer and worked in the luxury fragrance industry for five years. Her collection of home fragrance is extensive and she's met and interviewed five of the world's finest perfumers (also known as 'noses'). As a result of this expansive fragrance knowledge, she always puts quality and style over quantity and fads. Laura looks for products which have been designed simply and with thoughtful finishes.
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