Did you know you can whip up your very own bar cart, perfect for the cozy season, in just a couple days?? Let me show you how:
I started with a vision of a beautiful stained wooden bar cart with caster wheels and gold metal accents. If you want a stained bar cart, just make sure you’re using all the same wood type to ensure a consistent finish - I chose red oak since it takes stain super well and is a beautiful hardwood but still relatively easy to find at Home Depot/Lowe’s.
You can break down your materials needed into these categories:
LUMBER
- Plywood for shelves (either red oak plywood or you can veneer over cheap plywood)
- 1”x2”s to frame out shelves AND for the legs
- Small section of 1x4 to cut out the arched piece on top of the front two legs
- Dowel rods
OTHER
- Caster wheels
- Spray primer, spray paint, stain, poly
- Wood glue
- Screws, brad nails
Once you have your materials and have plotted out the measurements you want (I opted for approx. 35” height and 31” width), you can make all your cuts!
Start with the shelves. Either get a nice plywood like red oak, birch, maple (though birch and maple are harder to stain) or do what I did and get a cheap plywood and veneer over it. This is the budget option but it does come with its own challenges, so choose whichever makes more sense for you!
Frame out your shelves with simple 1”x2”s (I used red oak to stay consistent). I used a brad nailer on all the corners and also to secure the frame to the shelf. You can also pocket hole from below to attach the shelf to the frame - this would be extra sturdy!
TIP: to get the perfect custom wood filler when staining a piece, just mix some of your sawdust from cutting with some wood glue! Most standard wood fillers won’t blend with your wood tone when staining, so this trick is a game changer imo. You can thank me later!
For the gold “metal” accents I decided to get wooden dowels and spray them gold - this was a gamble but it actually worked super well! My partner didn’t even realize until watching me edit this video that they weren’t actually metal rods LOL. I sprayed them with Zinsser spray primer first - this stuff is incredible and I’ll 99% of the time reach for this over your standard brush-on liquid primer. My go-to gold spray paint is Rust-Oleum’s Metallic Gold. I think it is such a beautiful color and really gives that authentic metallic sheen! Give it plenty of time to dry between coats and be prepared to roll them around quite a bit between coats to get full coverage.
Once you have your dowels sprayed, shelves assembled, and legs cut, you can cut out the curved pieces that sit on top of the front two legs like I did. I think it adds such a nice design element! Truth be told, this part did take a while haha, and if I did it again I’d take even more time blending where the curved sections meet the legs. But the process is essentially just finding a round object to trace your curved arch onto the wood, then use a jigsaw to cut it out. Sand down those arched pieces and carefully drill into each end where the leg meets the arched piece, and secure with dowels and wood glue. Clamp for a while to keep it secure while it dries, and then use your custom wood filler and blend those seams.
Something I did throughout this project that really helps give it a professional touch is *dun dun dun*.…sanding. I know. Not the most fun thing. But I sanded over every single edge of every piece of lumber here, curving out all those sharp edges and I’m telling you, it really makes it look that much more polished.
I recommend pre-drilling as much as possible before staining. I did 75% of my pre-drilling for dowels/screws before staining and that last 25% had me kicking myself for not doing it earlier! This is because drilling will inevitably leave a touch of raw wood showing/potentially splinter and it’s much harder to touch up again after you’ve stained everything. It’ll just look more seamless if you do it beforehand.
Now for the staining! I wanted a rich traditional warm color and Varathane’s Early American stain was perfect for this. Red Oak takes stain super well so this didn’t need a pre-stain conditioner. After I let the stain dry I went over it with Watco’s wipe-on polyurethane. This is a favorite of mine - it really is the most fool-proof top coat ever! It’s super durable, and super easy to apply. You just wipe on a somewhat thin layer and let it dry. It will be tacky at first but will cure super hard. You can do multiple coats if needed.
Finally you’re ready to assemble! This is the fun part where you get to see all your hard work come together. Insert the dowels to their corresponding pre-drilled holes in the legs, and then screw the shelves to the legs. I opted to countersink the screw holes a bit so the screw heads wouldn’t pop out.
And that’s it folks! You have a beautiful bar cart ready for parties, family get-togethers, and all those cozy nights in.
What do you think?? Any questions on the process/products used? Would you tackle this? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!