Fold Up Bar
Buy the best fold up bar selected and recommended by interior designers. By Emily Hilton.
Just like the old fold up ironing boards of the past, these clever and efficient fold up bars are a very interesting way to have your bar, but in a small space, and quickly make it disappear when done. With storage within, with artwork on the back, or with nothing but a wood facing, we have tons of fold up bars for your next party or drinking event.
Fold Up Bar
Buying Guide
Emily Hilton
Interior Design Expert
Emily is a young, talented designer, whose professional interests gravitate towards kitchen and dining spaces. She prides herself on her attention to detail, obsession with functionality, and appreciation for craftsmanship.
Fold up bars are stylish, versatile pieces of furniture. A standard fold up bar opens out from the wall and is held in place by an industrial-style metal chain or a pair of rustic wooden hinges. When you fold out this cabinet, your work surface expands, and you have plenty of space to prepare garnishes and measure out shots for fancy cocktails.
When you’re not using this functional furniture piece as a fashionable bar, you can store your favorite collection of vinyl records or spare coffee table volumes in the cabinet. If you have a fold up bar that’s constructed with dark mahogany or rich walnut wood, complement this traditional-style aesthetic by arranging a series of hardbound books or encyclopedias inside the compartment.
You might also consider using this fold-up cabinet as a coffee or tea-making bar. Open up the front panel to reveal a premium-grade French press, an attractive-looking AeroPress, a variety of loose leaf tea infusers, and several sealed jars full of coffee beans and aromatic tea bags.
How easy a fold-up bar is to clean depends on the style and material of the product in question. There are many types of fold-up bars, and some are made entirely of wood, while others are laminate or even canvas.
If you’re working with a traditional fold-up wooden bar, the cleaning process is easy. Simply create a mixture of warm water and mild dish soap. Using a non-abrasive damp cloth, wipe down the bar’s surface after each use before folding it back up. This prevents crumbs from tumbling to the floor. After wiping with a damp cloth, dry the surface thoroughly because excess moisture can damage the wood.
You can apply the same method to other bar surfaces. However, collapsible bars with a canvas surface are more challenging to clean if they become stained.
Your fold-up bar will be much smaller when it’s compacted and ready to be stored away—but how much smaller? Will it be small enough to place under a chair, for example?
We’ve seen three different types of fold-up bars that all minimize in different ways. First up is the fold-up bar that folds up similarly to an ironing board, which will likely be able to fold up small enough to fit behind a door or under a large piece of furniture.
There’s also the fold-up bar that folds into a larger (but more compact) piece of furniture, like a cabinet. Finally, we’re seeing a lot of fold-out bars that include flaps folding down from a wall-mounted cabinet. This is a great choice for a small space because it takes advantage of vertical space.