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You know I have a thing for industrial, rustic pieces, right? Well, when I saw this little industrial kitchen cart in my local thrift store:
I knew it was going to be a perfect bar cart.
But going from the “before” to the “after” wasn’t a straight line. As with many DIY projects, I had to fail once before realizing how to succeed. Here’s how I turned this industrial kitchen cart into a bar cart.
Let’s start at the very beginning (it’s a very good place to start). I first gave the cart a good cleaning and sanded some of the rust off the top and legs. To clean it, I just used some mild dish soap and water. To sand the shelves, I used 150-grit sandpaper, then went back over it with 220-grit on my orbital sander.
I taped off the legs to spray paint the shelves. At first, I thought I’d leave the legs with some rust and wear on them.
If you follow me on Facebook, you might have seen this picture of the progress:
But, as you can see in the picture below, the legs looked dingy once the shelves were shiny and new-looking with the red paint. I used Rust-Oleum Gloss Apple Red
Hmmmm. I pressed on, though. I taped off a chevron pattern on the top and painted in the chevrons with gold paint.
I was liking it. Glam is not really my thing, but this seemed right to me. Well, until it didn’t.
I pulled off the tape and the gold paint peeled off with it.
What I think happened is that it rained in between coat 1 of the gold paint and coat 2. The humidity didn’t do it any favors, and off came the paint. Sigh.
I decided to take the peeling paint as a sign to start over and do this project right. This time, I took the cart apart.
I scrubbed the legs (again) and all the screws and wheels in soap and water.
After a good cleaning, I spray painted the legs of the cart Rust-Oleum Antique White in gloss finish. That was the closest color to the original legs’ color.
Much better, right?!?
I re-sanded the top shelf to get rid of the gold paint. Then I tried painting over the chevron pattern, but it didn’t really work.
Time for Plan B. Instead, I painted over the chevron pattern with Rust-Oleum chalkboard paint
I just taped off the area and applied two coats of chalkboard paint. It covered the pattern. Whew!
I put the cart back together and now I have a fun, functional, upcycled bar cart!
I love the chalkboard top! And the bottom two shelves provide the perfect storage for bar accessories.
From dingy little industrial kitchen cart:
To the perfect bar:
Come on over for a glass of wine, ok?
Dogs Don't Eat Pizza 
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