A Tongue-Twisting Teal Tea Trolley

Some people call it a bar cart. But since we are teetotallers, I'll call it a tea trolley.  And since it is teal in colour, it's a Teal Tea Trolley for Teetotallers (yes, say that ten times if you can)! Whatever, I had so much fun making this!  All out of scrap wood.

There's a furniture shop near my house that chucks out lots of stuff and I have no idea why.  Sometimes the flaws I detect can be easily fixed so I can't understand why they don't. We have salvaged parts of benches, wooden window frames, lots of wooden slats (the kind used as the base underneath mattresses of beds), even a 6-foot long TV stand.  So here's what I made with some of the pieces of wood I have been hoarding over the months.

After sawing the pieces to the required lengths (with the awesome electric saw I picked as a birthday gift when my kids asked me what I wanted), I arranged them with tiny gaps in-between and had two slats nailed underneath to keep them together.  This formed the top shelf.

 

For the bottom shelf, I used wider pieces of slats.

See those castors at the bottom?  I have fallen in love with castors!  So fun to roll my trolley anywhere I want.  But it still looks incomplete.....

Ah, I got it.....it needs some bars around it so things won't topple off easily...(that's how I work, I figure things out as I go along because I'm an amateur DIY-er like that).

Fill up any holes in the wood with wood filler and sand it smooth.

I used emulsion (water-based) paint because I find it less messy to work with.  I usually Protect my Painted Projects with Polyurethane (yes, say that ten times) anyway.  Polyurethane is in the family of wood varnish, wood wax, shellac and lacquer but I do not know the difference because I'm an amateur DIY-er like that. Then I picked this bright teal colour because I have plans for where this trolley is to go.  I have my favourite Paint Man from my favourite Paint Shop and he'll mix any colour that I choose !

Just remember to keep the colour code (of the colours blended) in case you need to get more paint later.  Here's my code, given to you free-of-charge because I'm generous like that.

And there you have it, in all its bright, glorious colour!

The amazing thing about it is I can think of so many ways a trolley like this can be used:
- to display plants
- to store your make-up and hair paraphenalia
- to stack books on
- for toys

Made completely out of discarded wood - my Teal Tea Trolley for Teetotallers (yes, say that ten times).  

What do you think?