When Mr. Frugalista, a.k.a. my official furniture buyer saw this wooden lattice tiered shelf online he asked if I would be interested. No twisting my arm because for a couple of years I've been on the hunt for a small portable outdoor beverage cart for our deck and this fit the bill perfectly.

The lattice detail screamed outdoors to me and all this little three-tiered shelf needed to turn it into a beverage cart were some casters to make it portable, some hooks for hanging utensils, and a fun pop of color so it didn't look so serious.




It's Themed Furniture Makeover Day, one of my favorite days of the month and the theme is Outdoors. Just the motivation I needed to repurpose the tiered table in my stash and FINALLY get that outdoor beverage cart that I've been dreaming about for a few years.

Portable Outdoor Beverage Cart From A Repurposed Shelf

The size of the beverage bar is perfect for a small deck, patio, or balcony.


And having three shelves instead of the standard two on readymade beverage carts come in extra handy for food and beverages.


This is what the tiered shelf looked like when we got it...


What I didn't know, before bidding on it was that it had this lovely wood laminate top. Bonus!


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Prepping wood laminate top for stain

The first thing I did after a good scrub with soap and water was removed the shiny finish on the wood top with paint stripper. I probably could have gotten away with just sanding it with an orbital sander.


You can see in the photo above that the laminate top was not original to the table and nailed onto the base from the top, who does that? The raw edges on the plywood leave little to be desired so it got prettied up with oak trim mitered on the corners.

Painting the lattice style tiered table

I thought about painting the base in a bright bold turquoise color, like the Vintage Patio Nesting Tables I refinished for last month's coastal theme challenge or the Candleholder Repurposed Into A Bistro Table. But our deck colors are terracotta and sage green so I decided on the color Sensible Sage (which I believe has been discontinued) so here are some alternate sage green chalk paint colors.

With all the lattice slats I knew painting the base with a brush would be tedious so I used my very handy paint sprayer (a newer model now available) to do the job.

Staining the wood laminate top

Once the paint was dry I flipped the table over and stained the top dark walnut applied with a clean lint free rag.


Because our beverage bar is covered by a canvas tarp when not in use, it was sealed with a mixture of dark wax and linseed oil. I love how the dark wax added depth to the sage green paint color.

All I did was pour some linseed oil into a small margarine container and mix a little dark wax until I liked the color. I brushed it on with an inexpensive chip brush and let it sit for about 15 minutes and wiped the excess with a lint-free rag.

If our beverage bar was exposed to the elements, a better option for sealing would be three coats of an exterior rated clear coat.

Adding fun hooks and embellishments

I added hand-painted floral porcelain knobs for things like bar utensils to hang from.


I also had this fun pewter garden tool hook for hanging tea towels and such.

Making the bar cart portable with casters

Another thing I found in my stash was the perfect casters to add to the feet, putting portable into the Portable Beverage Bar Cart.


This past weekend we enjoyed using the cart for snacks and beverages while taking breaks from our DIY wedding decor projects. Our daughter is getting married in two weeks and if you've been following me on Instagram, you know how busy I've been with wedding decor. Like the Rustic Wood Centerpiece Boxes, Rustic Tiered Wedding Cupcake Stand, and Rustic Wedding Card Box. Did I mention she's having an outdoor wedding?

Anyway, I digress. I'm so happy to finally have this handy beverage cart on our deck. It will be used as both a bar cart and food server for BBQ's and meals alfresco.

Please join me to visit my talented friends in the DIY Furniture Girls group to see what they created for their Outdoor furniture pieces.  Please pin directly from the original source.




You'll find this project shared at these fabulous link parties.