Trashtastic Tuesday- Vintage Bar Cart Makeover

Hey all! Welcome to Trashtastic Tuesday! This is a little series around here where I show you something that I thrifted, sometimes I make it over, sometimes I don’t. Or it may be something that I have owned and I am tired of, or no longer like, so I make it over. But nevertheless, it is usually something that I paid very little money for. The trashtastic project I am so excited to share with you today is a vintage bar cart makeover. I have been wanting to add some small additional storage in my kitchen for some time now, and when I found this bar cart I knew it was just the right size for the spot I had in mind. Here is a before picture of the bar cart.

And the finished version! I am so excited about the way it turned out! It looks so much better in this little nook than what was previously there (which was a lone bar stool). If you look to the left, you can see my burlap wreath decorated for Fall this year. I have yet to show that on the blog.

For you locals who may be reading this, I found this at a fantastic little shop in Morgantown, WV, called Black Cat Emporium. It was pink, and a little rusty, but I knew that was all easily changeable. Looking back, I think I may have over paid for it. It was $40, and I didn’t try to haggle them down, although in my gut, I knew I should. But I like the end result so much, that the $40 seems worth it to me. So, in the end, if I am happy with my purchase, that is all that really matters, right? I got a cute little bar cart that I love for a total of $40 and the cost of two cans of spray paint, so I say not too bad in my book! I would love to know how much you would have been willing to pay for something like this, so after you read the rest of this post, I would love for you to tell me what price you would have paid in the comments. (you can read about my DIY no sew cafe curtains here.)

This project was pretty simple, actually. On the top shelf were a few rusty spots, and it was really dirty, so I used some steel wool to rub it down and get rid of the rust. After I cleaned it with the steel wool, I then wiped it down with a damp cloth to get rid of any residue or dust. And then I let it dry.

The paint I chose was this Rust-Oleum spray paint in Robin’s Egg. This is usually my favorite spray paint because I love the nifty spray nozzle, but I had a horrible time with this particular two cans of paint that I purchased from Home Depot. This paint did not spray out of the nozzle the way it should have. See the black part of the nozzle? Well, every time I went to spray the paint, paint kept leaking out the bottom of the black nozzle, getting all over my hands, dripping down the can, and not only that, but if I got too close to the actual bar cart with it, big drops of paint would fall onto the surface, that I would then have to wipe off and it would wipe down to the bare metal no matter how many coats I had sprayed on. The most frustrating part was the very top shelf, big droplets kept falling and I kept having to wipe them and paint more coats. SO FRUSTRATING!!! I ended up using the entire two cans on this project. But I wouldn’t have had to if the paint worked properly. And the bad part is that it wasn’t just one of the cans, it was both of them. Shame on you, Rust-oleum! You need to fix that problem, pronto! Have any of you reading this right now ever experienced a similar problem with this type of spray paint? Please tell me about it in the comments if you have, I would love to read about it.

Rust-Oleum Universal 12 oz. All Surface Matte Robin's Egg Spray Paint and Primer in One (6-Pack)-282812 at The Home Depot

So after I FINALLY had the painting part finished, I had to wait patiently while it dried over night. But you can bet your bottom dollar I was up bright and early the next morning loading this baby up! And even thought I had such an awful experience with the spray paint I used, it all turned out in the end. I love the color, and the finish turned out just fine. I must say, I am extremely happy with how this bar cart project turned out, and in my book it is totally trashtastic! Besides my new bottle rack/mug tree, I also decided to display all of my vintage table cloths on the second shelf. I love the way they look here, and to think, they were just sitting in my storage closet all hidden from public before this! The bottom shelf could probably be utilized a little better. I had plans on storing our juicer on this shelf, but it was too tall, bummer. So I threw another colorful dish towel down, and some pretty bowls and a platter, and called it a day. So that shelf may change when the mood strikes.

One of the main reason’s I actually wanted a cart like this was to display a pretty bottle rack with pretty mugs. My inspiration was Jennifer Rizzo’s kitchen, have you seen it? The minute I saw the post she wrote about her kitchen, with the vintage workbench island, and the beautiful bottle rack full of pretty mugs, I knew that I must replicate it in some small way. I literally could not get the bottle rack/pretty mugs out of my mind! But I knew I had no place for something like that in my kitchen. So when I found this little bar cart, I knew just what purpose it was going to serve, and it would mainly be to hold my pretty mugs!

So, I had the bar cart, the next step was to find a bottle rack that I liked. I shopped around quite a bit online, and I finally settled on this one from Amazon. After I received it, I realized that it is the same exact mug tree that Melissa from The Inspired Room featured last fall. I placed a colorful vintage dish towel underneath of the bottle rack to protect the rack from scratching the surface of the bar cart.

The great thing about both this bar cart and this mug tree is that it freed up some cabinet space for us, which is much needed. I went to Marshall’s and purchased four pretty mugs to hang on the tree, and the rest I already owned, like the cute little Popeye Mug you see pictured below. LC bought this at an antique store, and it is so nice to have him out on display! Eventually I will have a whole tree full of really pretty mugs. Some of the mugs in back aren’t exactly pretty, so I am planning to use the one in, one out rule with my mugs. When I buy a pretty one to display, one is going to Goodwill.

Believe it or not, I am not a coffee drinker. LC and Miss 18 Year Old drink coffee, but me, I am a hot tea kind of girl. And I enjoy my nice cup of tea every morning while I am getting ready for work (which, BTW, I wrote a fabulous post about last week). And then I enjoy another one when I get to work. But choosing a pretty mug from my pretty new bar cart, and sitting down to do my bloggy reading with a nice cup of hot tea makes the perfect morning for me.

I have to say, I love my new trashtastic vintage bar cart! I love the color in my kitchen, and I love the added storage and the chance to display some pretty mugs out in the open. I hope you enjoyed my newest Trashtastic Tuesday project today! Thank you so much for stopping by, and I would love to hear what you think in the comments. And before you go, in case you missed my 2 Year Anniversary post yesterday, I have a giveaway running for $150 credit to Minted, so hop on back and register for your chance to win!Now that I think about it, it has been a while since I have shown you my whole kitchen, so I need to get it cleaned really well, and photograph it again so you can see what the rest of it looks like today. I am going to add that to my list of post’s to be written.

Happy Tuesday!If you like this project, please pin this image!

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