Garden Cart to Outdoor Bar Cart Makeover

I need to start this post with I am no Joanna Gaines and DIY while endearing in thought, is not my forte in the application. However, when my fiancé gave me full reign to re-do our patio, it meant that I could decide whether to keep or trash everything on the patio. For some reason, this garden cart from Ikea struck me as a high-potential fixer-upper project, even though the boards on the top were rotting through, it still had good bones and I wanted to try my best to re-do it. This $100 bar cart got a $120 upgrade and it looks like a million bucks now that we can use it for a variety of entertaining and gardening needs. Here’s how I updated the Ikea Klasen serving cart.

How To Grow Hydranges in PotsIkea Klasen Serving Cart UpgradeIkea Klasen Serving Cart Upgrade

Typically a DIY project goes like this: determines to re-do or re-create something on my own, buys all the things needed to make said project work, then inevitably I realize that it would have just been cheaper to buy the product in the first place, gives up on DIY project halfway through, throws half completed project in the trash, and buys the product I wanted to recreate.

The first step to remodeling this cart was to sand off all of the aged wood on the exterior. I used a power sander and a hand sander to get all the nooks and crannies.

Next, I rubbed on some teak oil with an old rag. Teak oil helps seal the wood and adds a nice shine to the wood. You can see how different the cart looks from its original state to it’s sanded and teak state in the photos above.

Ikea Klasen Serving Cart Upgrade

Finally, I went to a marble/ granite retailer in Atlanta to have them cut me a scrap piece of marble. This was the most expensive piece of the project, but make sure you ask for a scrap piece of marble for a small project like this, it will be much cheaper. If you go outside of the city limits, you can probably get a piece of marble for this project considerably cheaper. Just make sure to measure the top of your cart to account for a lip or not. I wanted the measurements to be exact so I had them cut the dimensions to be the same as the top.

This cart has no hardware on it besides the wheels so we picked up some handles and hooks in sterling silver. The handle is great to move the cart around or drape a hand towel from and the front hook is great to hang a hat while gardening or a tool.

The Ikea Klasen serving cart is easy to upgrade with a few simple enhancements. Since it comes pre-stained from the store, all you have to do is worry about adding a marble top and some fresh hardware. This is an easy weekend project to help you serve in style all summer long.

What DIY projects are you looking at tackling this year?

Author: Cynthia

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