Tea Cart Redo

Several years ago I bought a yellow cart at an estate sale (half off on Saturday so $7.)  I wasn't sure what to do with it so I stuck it on our deck and put flowers on it.  The weather took its toll on it so I stuck it in our garage where my family used it for their various projects.  From weather induced rust to spilled paint to extreme dirt, it was in pretty sad shape.

   Over this last year, I have collected some odds and ends that I have neither display room or storage room for.  It occurred to me that this cart might have a second life in it.

  After taking it apart, I set about getting rid of the rust.  Did you know you can get rid of rust by wetting aluminum foil with water and scrubbing?  I kid you not, it works like a charm.

   After a little bit of elbow grease, the legs were good as new.  Then I sanded the trays to remove the spilled paint and rust the best that I could.  Next came a coat of primer.

    I just grabbed a can of spray primer I found in the garage.  It was sans lid, but for some reason, I assumed it was white.  I was a bit dismayed to see black when I started spraying.  However, it was a good move as the primer coated everything very well and smoothed things out.

  Then it was multiple coats of red gloss spray paint.  I took the extra time to lightly sand between coats.  I usually skip this step because I am in such a big hurry.  This time, I made myself slow down.  It makes a huge difference in the final finish.  After three coats, I put it back together an started the fun step of decorating.

   The cookie cutters came from two different places.  The red ones were from that crazy garage sale where I paid $5 for a box of random things.  (You can read about that here.)  The vintage metal ones came from this junk store Thrift Chick and I love to stop in and pick.  I paid 50 cents for 6 old metal cutters.  I recently saw the same ones for $4 each!  The cow creamer is not vintage.  I got it at Tuesday Morning.  I couldn't resist because it is just so kitschy.  

I have recently gotten interested in vintage textiles.  They are pretty pricey.  These tablecloths are just things I have picked up on those half off Saturday estate sales when the real antiques have been picked the day before.  On the plus side, I haven't paid over a couple of dollars for any of them.  The yellow cracker tin is really cool.   The lid has a glass knob filled with crystals.  It was designed to keep your snacks crispy and dry.  The lid is heated in the oven until the knob turns bright blue.  It keeps everything nice and dry until it turns pink which means it is time for the oven again.  Pretty nifty huh?

  I love how it turned out.  My husband is thrilled to get all these things off the counter where they have been for way too many months.  There is just something about a vintage to cart to show off your vintage finds.

Patty