Art Deco Bar / Drinks Cabinet

This vintage MCM drinks bar / cabinet is totally amazing in design! It turns from being a medium - large piece, into a LARGE and commanding presence piece when fully extended!

Features:

• One key locking door
• A door that can be locked from the inside
• Two long sliding glass doors to the rear
• A bottom shelf to facilitate bottles, a middle mirrored shelf, and a top shelf.
• Extending sides pieces that open out to support the bar top when extended.
• A glass central piece when bar top is opened out, with a decorative centrally placed engraved ‘star’ shape’
• Two cocktail pick holders either side
• A lemon squeeze holder

Photos include some process shots, a rough sketch, a video to show the details of the outside, another video to show the twinkly paper used to decoupage the top inside shelf, and some before photos to show the extent of the transformation.

Inspiration:

The overall inspiration for this freestyle piece: Art Deco, freedom, euphoria, statues, morning sunrise, and partying over the years at a friend’s little cottage in the country side!

Ladies: statues - hand cut and crafted out of clay.

The big gold circle: the rising sun. Layers of gold metal leaf guilted on. Looks so amazing when the room is dimly lit, too.

The greeny gold arches: foliage. Hand cut and crafted out of clay.

The gold lines: bark / twigs. Hand cut and crafted out of clay on the front, and painted on, on the side pieces.

Bar top (flaps extended): hand painted shell design. I wanted to create a repeated pattern that looked good from behind the bar, as well as in front of it.

Side flaps that pull out: continuation of the design on the front for continuity and interest from all angles.

Top surface (extended flaps closed), side edges and pelmet: refinished, oiled, waxed.

The inside: this was pretty decently preserved and French polished. So I cleaned and waxed it, refinished and painted the shelf edges black to tie in with the outside, then decoupaged the top shelf.

Knobs and key tassel: I really liked the pewter colour of the knobs, so kept it and cleaned and buffed them. The key tassel is an elegant pink shade that looks beautiful against the greeny gold and sun gilding. It has one of my vintage beads on top that came from part of a clasp on an old broken pearl necklace - I love the added decadence this brings!

As with all of my pieces, a lot of design thought, meticulous attention to detail, and labour went into this piece to transform it from ‘drab’ to fab.

It would be an amazing addition to a home - a real one-off statement piece to be admired, especially at times of any celebrations or gatherings! :-).

MEASUREMENTS:

When not extended:

H: 42 inches (107 cm)

W: 36 inches (91.5 cm)

D: 17 inches (43.5 cm)

When fully extended:

H: 42 inches (107 cm)

W: 70.5 inches (179 cm)

D: 17 inches (43.5 cm)

Inside shelf space measurements:

Bottom bottle shelf, to underside of above shelf: 14 inches (36 cm)

Middle shelf - underside of top shelf: approx 7 inches (18.5 cm)

Top shelf - underside of bar top: Approx 10 inches (26 cm)

PROCESS HIGHLIGHTS:

🔶 Whole piece cleaned inside and out

🔶 Whole outside of piece stripped of old finish

🔶 Design sketched

🔶 Ladies hand cut out of clay and applied to doors

🔶 Foliage, bark / twigs hand cut out of clay and applied to the entirety of the outside

🔶 Whole outside (except wood edges, pelmets and top) painted in soft black

🔶 Stippled white applied to ladies

🔶 Blended greens and gold applied to foliage

🔶 Gold metal leaf guilted onto sun

🔶 Gold guilting wax applied to bark / twigs then buffed

🔶 Gold paint applied for bark / twigs on extending side pieces

🔶 Black paint added to front pelmet to create curves and a softer extended continuation to the bottom of the design on the front doors

🔶 All exposed wood - refinished, re-stained, layers of oil applied, waxed then buffed

🔶 Painted black surfaces sealed with a wax finish varnish

🔶 Painted metallic parts sealed with semi-gloss varnish

🔶 Gilted sun sealed

🔶 Shell stencil made and a blend of gold and bronze stippled on to create a repeated pattern over the entire opened out bar top

🔶 Whole opened out bar top sealed, waxed then buffed

🔶 Central glass top piece cleaned and buffed

🔶 Knobs cleaned and buffed, key tassel and vintage bead attached to key

🔶 Whole inside re-waxed and buffed. Shelf edges re-finished and painted black

🔶 Top shelf decoupaged in beautiful lightly textured and twinkly paper (see vid)

🔶 Sliding rear glass doors cleaned and runners waxed for a smooth closure

🔶 Inside of front doors and side extenders waxed and buffed

*Care notes* to clean, I would only recommend a dry dust to the front and side pieces as they are painted surfaces. The exposed wood parts, can be re-waxed in time, as and when necessary. The opened out bar top will only require a very light spritz of water onto a cloth (barely damp) and not spritzed directly onto the surface. I always recommend something protective placed under any item to be placed on any surface of furniture, to protect the finish.

*Please also be aware that vintage / antique items I sell may have age related marks / nicks / patina, especially depending on the age and original purpose of the item. I see the beauty and history in these, so will either leave them in, or work with them to add to the overall aesthetic of particular pieces*