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 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!