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A while back, I showed a post about the bar cart that Joey and I revamped. We love it, and as it turns out, so do most of our friends.  It gets a lot of compliments. So when some of our closest friends bought their very first house, we (or maybe just I….Joey didn’t really have a choice in the matter) decided that we had to make them a bar cart as a housewarming gift.  But I wasn’t having luck finding a good frame at the thrift stores, so I had to take a different approach – IKEA!! I love Ikea, and it turns out their Bygel Utility Cart makes a pretty good bar cart. I saw some cool makeovers on Pinterest, so I decided to give it a shot.

We started by assembling the basic cart. As you can see from the photo below, it’s a little boring.

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That is where the wonder of contact paper and chalkboard paint came in.  You might remember my stainless steel contact paper backsplash from a few years ago.  Well, I borrowed from that idea and covered the bottom two shelves for a stainless steel, industrial look.  Then I busted out the chalkboard paint.  I gave the top shelf a few coats of paint.  After letting it dry, I handed Joey a piece of chalk and told him to draw whatever he wanted. He complained a little bit, but I know he secretly loves all the projects I drag him into.  He came up with a great design in like 10 minutes.

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If our friends decide they want to change up the look, they can just erase it and have Joey draw them something else — although they might have to bribe him with some drinks first, but I’m sure he will eventually agree to draw something new.

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We brought it over to our their house last week, and they love it.  It was a simple project, inexpensive project that will definitely be put to good use.

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