DIY Garden Cart to Bar Cart -

My husband is a huge whiskey connoisseur, and although I wasn’t thrilled about displaying his half empty bottle collection, it IS his house too 🙂 (sigh)! After coming across a couple of old metal garden carts, I knew I could create the perfect, classy bar cart that would fit right into our farmhouse home.

Although one garden cart had a bent wheel and the other was covered with rust, these are the type of old items I love to get my hands on and refurbish!
My inspiration for this bar cart was this Anthropology Wooden Bar Cart. When I envisioned this transformation, I pictured a matte finished black cart with two wooden shelves. Let’s see how it turned out!

Start by sanding down the rust and paint that was chipping away from the metal. Sanding sponges are my favorite way to sand! (highly recommend) After wiping down the excess loose paint chips with a wet rag, set the cart on a plastic tarp to begin the painting process.

I used Valspar’s Project Perfect Black Fade Resistant Enamel Spray Paint from Lowe’s. This had the matte finish I was looking for and was also paint plus primer, which made the white to black painting process much easier. I would recommend giving the cart two coats. This process took 2 cans of spray paint.
Tips for spray painting:

I recommend wearing gloves. I don’t follow this rule enough, and always regret it after. Spray paint is not easy to wash off your hands and nails.
If spraying outside, be sure to spray down wind, or else you are going to have splotches of paint all over you.
Painting is a game of patience. Spray in light coats, allowing each coat to dry before returning to spray another coat. If you over spray you’ll get drip marks and these are never fun to fix.
Read the instructions! It will tell you how far to hold the paint can. Spraying too close also causes dip marks.

Sit the cart aside and give it time to dry completely before adding the wooden shelves.

Lowe’s has so many wood choices. I chose a 1 in by 16 in by 6ft panel for a few reasons:

The 1 inch thick wood (which was actually only 0.65in thick) was an important part of my decision because a thicker board did not look as professional and finished.
This particular board had good character throughout the wood. There were notches and different colors showing. I knew it would look great with the stain I chose.

I recommend checking for any warping before purchasing. Warping will mess up how the wood lays on the shelf.

At Lowe’s, they cut your wood for you for free! I had them cut the piece to the dimensions I needed for the cart.

I stained the pieces of wood with Minwax Wood Finish – Penetrating Stain from Home Depot. I used the penetrating stain because it is oil-based wood stain, which creates a beautiful rich color that would enhance the natural wood grain the boards already had.
Staining is not for everyone, but it can be very simple! I wear latex gloves (because no one has the time to worry about stain on and under your nails). To apply the stain I use an old, cut up t-shirt.
Start by shaking your can of stain thoroughly. Once your gloves are on, it is time to start staining! Dip the t-shirt into the stain, allowing a moment for the stain to drip off before moving it out from over the can. The more stain applied the darker the color. I suggest starting with a little and gradually adding stain until you have the color you want!
Start in one corner of the board in a circular motion and make your way across the board. Be sure not to press too hard on the edges of the board (you don’t want to have very dark edges with a lighter stain in the middle of the board). Staining the end of a freshly cut wood is definitely the hardest part. Use a blotting technique.

Once the stain was dry, I applied Minwax Satin Polycrylic Finish – Clear Matte from Home Depot in order to have a protective topcoat on the wood. If you plan to make this an outdoor cart, I would recommend something stronger and more protective.