Cocktail Hour: 10 Stylish Home Bars

The homeowner of a house in East Hampton, New York, asked artist Richard Woods to work his fun, faux-bois magic on the bar, transforming a closet-like space into a vivid focal point. "It's artistic, but very much a bar," designer Mica Ertegun says. "It's whimsical, fun, unexpected — and one-of-a-kind."

An antique bookcase doubles as a bar in this Manhattan apartment designed by Phoebe and Jim Howard. Glassware by William Yeoward Crystal.

"A little bar tucked away in the corner of a living room is such welcoming gesture," designer Meg Braff says of this house in Lattingtown, New York. She chose antiques and a mellow palette to lend "an old-world charm" to the space. Walls are lacquered in a custom gold shade to bounce around the light.

In the dining room of their Barnard, Vermont, cottage, Deirdre Heekin and Caleb Barber set up a sumptuous old-world bar on her childhood desk, placed against a backdrop of vintage wallpaper from Second Hand Rose.

In a Malibu home, an 1860s refectory table from Hideaway House holds designer Lawrence Rizkowsky's favorite living room accessory — a lamp from a glass beaker — and an antique wicker basket that serves as a casual bar. The root wood mirror is from JF Chen.

A console serves as a bar in the sunroom of designer Amanda Lindroth's Bahamas house. "Every island house needs a fantastic, spilling-over bar," she says. A painting by the prominent Bahamian outsider artist Amos Ferguson serves as a backdrop. Poufs and rope clock from Two's Company.

Designer Ashley Whittaker's clients "wanted a house with comfortable rooms for the family and formal rooms where they could entertain." For the bar, she choose Aladdin tile from Waterworks to conjure up an exotic Moroccan feel.

Inspired by a gentleman's smoking lounge, the bar in this New York apartment designed by David Rockwell, built by C. Stasky, is clad in Maya Romanoff's True Metals Coffers. William Yeoward crystal. Ebony Pearl Silestone counter.

Designer Tom Scheerer corralled barware and liquor bottles in a basket with matching napkin caddy in a Vero Beach, Florida house: "I put it between the living and family rooms. Bars express welcome and conviviality, and I like them out in the open."

A Dutch door off the living room of an upstate New York house designed by Jesse Carrier and Mara Miller opens to a closet-size serving bar. Rohl faucet.