BAR CART MAKEOVER

I'm thrilled that bar carts are back in vogue. I have always loved them. There is something so chic and "James Bond" about them!

And I have the perfect corner in the dining room for one.

But have you priced bar carts lately? The can be very expensive for such a small piece! I've looked for bar carts on ebay and overstocks.com and nothing excited me. Then I found one on TARGET.COM that had potential and the price was right. It has an antique brass base, although I was not fond of the wooden shelves.

But I had an idea for the shelves... and the saga began...

Here is the before...  

nice cart but blah shelves!

Here is the corner the bar cart calls home...

Here is the after...

unique shelves

At first I decided to paint the bar cart shelves and use decorative Frog Tape to make a chevron pattern on them.  As I was looking through all the paint chips at Lowe's, collecting piles of them to choose two contrasting paint colors... inspiration struck!

Why not use the paint chips and Mod Podge them onto the bar cart shelves? Making a Mosaic-like pattern. That would be very unique and different and hopefully pretty!

So I began stuffing colored paint chips into the pocket of my purse. Lots and lots and lots of paint chips!!!! Any chips that I thought would work well with my dining room found their way... in multiples... into my purse!

Feeling quite guilty about this, I bought 2 samples of paint, more Frog Tape and a can of chalkboard spray paint. I thought that might defray all my paint chip hoarding!


These are just some of the paint chips on the ho-hum wood.

I really did not know where to begin! I've only ever Mod Podged one other thing in my whole life!

To see my aged map using Mod Podge, click HERE.






I decided the bottom shelf would be my "practice piece". Thank goodness! I made a few mistakes on the shelf and overlapped  some mosaic paint chips to cover them up!


For the top shelf I decided to not worry about some tiny hairline gaps in the mosaics.  Because most of the mosaic will be covered up with bar gear and bottles.



I had no real method of making the pattern... I just cut the chips with a Fisker's cutter and ruler, Mod Podged the back of the chips and pressed them down of the shelf next to one another.

The supplies...

When all the chips were laid down I used a small foam roller and painted 2 thin coats of Mod Podge over the entire top of each shelf, making sure the surfaces were dry between coats.




Ta-Da!

I think the tops of the shelves have an abalone look. Too bad most of it will be covered up with bar paraphernalia!

This bar cart cost nothing for me to makeover... excluding the guilty buy of sample paint, Frog Tape and chalkboard paint!


What could you cover with paint chips?



Stop back tomorrow when I'll share my favorite way to keep cozy this winter!

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