It may take me a while to actually complete a project, but I really do get with the program pretty early on. Take bar carts, for example. I've been seeing them in every shape and form over the past like, gajillion months, and I have a HUGE crush on them! I've seen new ones, old ones, refurbished ones. Mine's a refurbished one. And I couldn't be happier. We all know bar carts can cost a pretty penny these days due to their popularity. Mad Men and all that, I guess.


Here it is in all its retro glory. I picked it up at an impromptu stop at a local yard sale. $10.00 score!  I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. It just needed a good cleaning and sprucing up. I took it outside and hosed it down, and scrubbed away the dirt and cobwebs. Then I began taking it apart.


Here's one of the lovely black plastic caster wheels. I think you can see why I felt the need to change it up a bit.


Despite its, um, unattractive qualities, it has good bones AND it folds up for easy storage!


So I began to spruce her up with spray paint.


I'm so crushing on gold these days (unusual for me, I know) so I used Rustoleum American Accents 2x Ultra Cover in Metallic Bright Gold spray paint.

While the spray paint was drying I traced the shelves onto a funky hot pink chevron pattern vinyl tablecloth. I figured it was cheap ($3.99) and waterproof, so why not?


Here I am kneeling on the tablecloth on the floor.  And yes, our wheaten terrier is pretty bold. She just plops herself down wherever she pleases to have a good chew on her toy. As for cutting the tablecloth to size, just put your shelf faced down on the back side of the cloth and trace around it, a few inches out all around.


Here it is on top of the tablecloth cut out. I wanted to staple it on but the staples would have gone through the particleboard. So I had to resort to plan B - the glue gun. I gotta tell you I have a love-hate relationship with glue guns. It got the job done but I felt that it was a lot messier than I would have liked . (Hence, no pictures.) I also picked up four black wheel casters with shiny gold covers and used them to replace the old ones. What a difference they made to the overall look of the cart!

Now I'm going to overwhelm you with pictures of the finished product. (Don't say I didn't warn you.) I had so much fun styling this thing for the photo shoot! I even made pink lemonade, yum! I really did have fun staging this whole thing. Most of what I used was either from Goodwill, thrifted in some other way or just plain super-cheap. Surprised, right?


The straws are from the dollar bin at Target. Don't you just love the polka dots? They're sitting in a mint julep cup that I've had forever.


The heavy glass lemonade pitcher is from Goodwill: $1.99. I absolutely love it! It has a beautiful shape and perfectly crafted spout.


The white metal colander was $.99 at Goodwill. The reindeer was another Target find from a few years ago - I can't remember the price.


The "vase" is a vintage blue Ball Jar that I love to use for our hydrangeas (I'm obsessed). And can you see the vintage martini shaker in the back? I'm really glad that I could fill my vintage bar cart with so many thrifted and vintage finds!









 So here we go one last time.





What do you think? I obviously staged it as a bar cart, but for now it's going into Chickadee Number Two's bedroom as a funky side table. (No coincidence that her room is pink so it will go great in there.) I think I've got an even better idea for it once I move it into her room. I'll be sure to share that later.

Let me know what you think of my transformation!