vintage londonaire travel bar ~

Have bar, will travel ~ again! I scored a vintage Londonaire travel bar while shopping at Seaside Sisters during my Tybee visit last November. I pondered using it in its original state, doing something crafty, or adding some sort personalization ~ and here’s the bluwaterstyle result. 🙂

I’ve enjoyed the other travel bars I created from metal train cases. They are definitely my style. This Londonaire bar is what my family would call a true “Bunky Bar” ~ so named for the travel bar Bluwaterdad’s college room-mate carried to all events.

I wanted to personalize this bar, but nothing permanent that would damage the original state. So I decided to use nautical flags as a sort of monogram and spell out “bluwaterlife”. These are vinyl decals I created ~ details on that are further down in the post ~ and they’re easily removed and leave no damage. I tested it a few times before committing! Now there’s a special bluwaterlife style monogram, front and back.

Though these bars are pretty traditional, I had to go a little off the traditional track to style it for my use. Keeping all the original accessories, I added my 3 favorite rums and a few beach bar tchotchkes from the cabinet ~ including a special deck of cards, as a nod to the standard mid-century accessories. My vintage Londonaire travel bar is ready now for an adventure. Have bar ~ and beach bag, and picnic basket ~ will travel! 🙂

Here are the details on the nautical flag decals. I used a Martha Stewart nautical alphabet template ~ here’s the PDF download ~ then cropped and copied the letters I needed for “bluwaterlife”.  Actually, after some frustrating time trying crop and copy, Bluwaterguy helped and figured out the most efficient steps to go from template to document. He’s our tireless technical advisor! Then I repeated for the letters I needed, and printed on these Cricut vinyl sheets.

Next ~ I cut out the flag decals with my Xacto knife and drafting triangle. I originally wanted a 3/5/4 arrangement but a 3 x 4 block worked better, so that’s the layout I used.

Some painter tape loosely applied gave me guidelines for the corners and then I eye-balled the rest. Though the flag decals look like they’re uniform sizes, they’re actually slightly different sizes like the real flags. So, general measurements for spacing and visual adjustments to get things lined up. Then rinse and repeat for the other side. It’s “bluwaterlife” coming and going!

My vintage travel bar has some new yachting panache. 🙂  Now I just need a vintage wooden Chris Craft yacht to go with it! Until then, any picnic table or beach-side bench will be a great spot for a bluwaterdrink and toast with my new/old bluwaterstyle travel bar. I’ll save you a seat. Cheers y’all ~~~