FANCY BAR CART

Fancy Bar Cart…from a hardware store? What???? That’s crazy. I wanted a bar cart sooo bad. It seems like any cool mid-century house has an awesome bar cart. I started pinteresting all of the bar carts I liked and pricing them out online. I really liked this one from West Elm and this one from Crate and Barrel. But they were all really expensive and I wanted something that was custom and unique for our house. There are a ton of pins online about how to build bar carts using utility carts. I had a 20% off coupon for Harbor Freight tools so I thought I would give this utility cart a try. After a few days of checking the mail constantly, does anyone else love getting packages as much as I do? I had a utility cart. But….it was red…and not a bar cart. There isn’t one red thing in our house. So off to Home Depot to get spray paint. We decided to go with Army Green but you could do any color. I liked a lot of the gold carts. Black or navy could work too.

Now this is what I get for not researching spray paint techniques. I was just so excited to have a cart that I jumped right into it. I bought 3 cans of spray paint. I went home. I laid all of the pieces out in the driveway and sprayed the heck out of them. They were still red. Knowing what I know now if I had thought about it ahead of time I would have used a grey primer to neutralize the red base. Learn from my mistakes folks. Red takes a lot of spray paint to get it to Army Green. 6 cans in fact. 6. Chew on that for a while.

Anyways…After the pieces were dry I assembled the cart. It was pretty easy. I was able to do it with just me and my two hands and with the help of a wrench and a screw driver. The cart looked great but it needed some flair to make it bar cart worthy. I bought birch plywood and cut panels for the bottom of the cart shelves. I sanded the plywood just a tad so it would accept the stain. When I put the cart together I noticed that the bolts were raised up so one flat piece of wood wasn’t going to work. I nailed two pieces of wood together so the top piece sits above the bolts and is level so we can put stuff on the cart.

I stained the panels with stain that we had used a few times before. It’s a nice dark walnut. We used it on our house numbers and the string art that Ben made me, which is awesome btw. More on those in a future post.

When the panels were dry I slid them into the cart shelves. I had to remove the top bolts to get them in so that I didn’t damage any of the wood but it was pretty easy.

Then it was a matter of picking the right libations and accessories. I am totally one of those people who buys bottles because I like the graphic design. I also like to buy local products if I can. The key is to pick things that you will actually drink and that go with your style. I like cool graphic designs. Some people go for the classics.

A well stocked cart has a little of each type of drink so when friends come over there is something for everyone. I like to have at least vodka, gin, tequila, champagne, and rum. We also stock accessory drinks like tonic water, ginger ale, single bottle craft beer, juice, wine, fancy soda, and anything else that we might like. Lately, I have been into Moscow Mules so we have had ginger beer on the cart. I also add fresh lemons and limes when I know people will be coming over.

I added drink accessories like a bottle opener, wine cork thingy, shaker, shot glasses, and straws. Try some paper straws for a cool look. Since my brother works at Disney we have a cool silver Mickey Mouse bottle opener. We also have shot glasses from our alma maters. You could also add a tray for serving, depending on the size of the cart. I had a silver serving tray from my mother in law that looked great as a compliment to the dark walnut stain.

I think an awesome bar cart has some fun non bar related items. It could be books, pictures, candles, or flowers. Whatever you like. We decided to let our Gnomie live in the cart. Rollin with my Gnomies! A little Coolio anyone? Anyone thinking of Clueless? Ben and I love, love, love gnomes. I picked this one up at an Old Time Pottery when I was in Florida. He has a dollar sign necklace! This little guy is sooo cool.

I played around with the arrangement of the cart and will continue to adjust things as we add bottles and move pieces around. I grouped bottles and accessories together to make the cart look full. You also want to have enough clear space so the cart doesn’t look cluttered.

Cost Breakdown:
Cart: $40
Spray Paint: $4 x 6 cans = $24
Birch Plywood: $25 x 2 (2×4 panels) = $50
Stain: $0 (I used one we already had)
Total: $114

There you have it! One utility cart turned bar cart. You could also use this cart as a dedicated wine cart, in your kitchen for spices or towels, or as a kids toy cart. There are a ton of possibilities.
To see where this bar cart lives check out my House Tour!