Happy Home: Colorful Bar Decor

Earlier this week, I showed you how to make easy and affordable book art. Today, I wanted to show you how I styled my bar! We've had this piece of furniture since we lived at our small apartment, so it held all our drinking glasses and acted as an entry table. Now that we have a larger home, it's only the bar. It's been a bit neglected, so I wanted to spruce it up after I added our artwork. 

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We bought our bar at Home Goods, but I found similar ones here, here and here. I wanted to set up my bar so that it would feature all my favorite items, while still being really colorful and simple to use. You don't really want to cover it in junk that needs to be removed every time you want to make a drink, right? 

I started by using my zebra tray for a drink station. I added some cute cactus glasses and my adorable confetti shaker. I love paper straws, since they are more colorful and better for the environment. I added some of my faves for easy access, and stored them in a tall shot glass/champagne flute. I put the cups on my cute glitter coasters and added painted animal and disco ball drink stirrers. I also featured my adorable Life is the Bubbles champagne flute that's handmade and oh so cute!

Since there was a random empty spot in the middle, I needed something with height that didn't block the light switch. I decided to add some fun and colorful books. I don't really read these books too often (if at all) so I thought they would look nice featured on the bar instead of stuffed on my bookshelf for a change. I also added my painted sketch book that I use a lot to sketch blog post ideas, home decor ideas, etc. It added some color and pizzazz to the whole thing.

In the corner, I featured some of my favorite liquors (or are they liqueurs?) and my favorite drinking glass, a pink ombre wine glass (similar). I had two but one sadly broke, so it's extra special to me now haha. Some Polar seltzers as mixers help guests to serve themselves, while fake flowers add some elegance without any upkeep.

I placed these items on an extra placemat I had from my dining table, and a C (for Cardona) statue thingy that I usually put on my entry table. I thought it looked really elegant amongst all the colorful bar items. For a finishing touch, I added my pineapple garland to add a bit of whimsy to the space.

To fill in the gaps, I gathered some random decor items from my home. I had these fake potted plants from an Easter DIY so I added them in for some color. I love these candles that I got from Ikea so I added those as well. Some appropriately themed napkins added a finishing touch and an extra pop of color.

If you want to have a bar in your home for parties but don't have room for a permanent piece of furniture, I highly recommend this foldable bar cart. It's really compact, sturdy and it works indoor and out! It's really versatile and I love mine. It's also a great add-on for bigger parties.

Do you have bar cart at home? How do you style it? Let me know in the comments below!

DIY Affordable Book Art

As I mentioned in my last post, I've got a serious lack of artwork in my home! I wanted to find some cute and colorful cocktail-related images for above my bar, but everything was either cheesy or expensive. Also, the space is a weird size- there's a light fixture above and a light switch below, so I only had about 2 feet in between for art. I had a book of cocktails that I rarely used, which had some GORGEOUS photos inside. That's when it hit me- why hide the images in the book, when I could display them proudly on the wall?! I went to Michael's to pick up some cute and simple white frames with a mat so the images would take up enough space while also "popping" against the frame. I'm sooo happy with the result that I decided to show you guys exactly how I did it.

The best part is that you can use any type of book or magazine that you have. My suggestions? HGTV books and magazines for cool and colorful homes, Cooking Magazines or Recipe Books with tasty recipes for the kitchen, and Artwork Books and Magazines for the rest of the home. Even National Geographic would be great with its artistic animal photos!

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You will need: 

Frame (from Michaels, similar here)
Books (here)
 

Directions:

1. Flip through your book or magazine to find your favorite images. Tear them out as close to the spine as you can.
2. Remove the back of your frame and take out the placeholder image and the mat.
3. My mat was double layered white and gray, so I carefully pulled off the gray one from underneath to leave only the white one. It worked perfectly!
4. Position your artwork within the mat, and tape in place if needed.
5. Place the mat and artwork into the frame, and close up the back. Make sure there is no dust or hairs on the inside of the glass before you do!

I mean... how cute does this artwork look?! This is such an affordable way to add some artwork to your home, especially if you have gorgeous books that you occasionally look at but don't use. This way, everyone can see the beauty within- right there on the walls! I also styled my bar with some really cute, colorful stuff. That blog post is coming later this week, so stay tuned!

Are you planning to create your own book art for your home? Let me know what you plan to use in the comments below!

DIY Colorful Abstract Artwork

Nothing makes a house a home quite like artwork. It really completes the look and helps to show some personality. Unfortunately, I've got a whooooole lot of empty space on my walls, and I really want to change that! Or, I guess fortunately... since now I get to have some fun with artwork! For starters, I made this super easy abstract artwork using a spare canvas I had and some paint. It was basically free! The best part about this type of art is that you can really get creative and free by painting any way you like! For those that want a similar look to mine, here are the steps that I took.

You will need:

Canvas Panels (here)
Paints (similar here)
Metallic gold paint (here)
Brushes (similar here)
Newspaper or similar to cover workspace

Directions:

1. Using a large paintbrush, start painting thick lines of your first color. I went from light to dark, since it covered better. I tried to cover as much of the canvas as I could the first time around.
2. Using a thinner paintbrush, paint smaller strokes of all the colors once again. This is a good time to try to cover any blank spots.
3. Once I painted all the thinner lines, I went over them again lightly with a dry brush to “blend” the colors and make it less streaky. 
4. Using a medium thickness brush, paint on some white paint to lighten up the whole look. Be sure to have enough on the brush so that you’re adding some white, not just smearing around the paint already on there.
5. Add more thin strokes of color to reduce the giant white streaks, then grab a wide brush for your gold accent.
6. Paint on your gold strokes, then add more white if you want it to be a little lighter once again. And you’re done!

To hang up your canvas, add a hanging string using glue or purchase some inexpensive 3M Velcro. You can also put it in a frame!