Making a Kitchen Cart

A while back, I received a few marble top tables.  The table part was uninspiring, but the marble!  I have always wanted a marble slab for the kitchen, but this stuff is too heavy to move to IL, so I kept it in reserve for use at the cabin.  Marble is the best surface for rolling pastry and making candy. If you don't mind a stain or two over the years, it acquires a wonderful patina..

The cabin is small (if you've been following the blog, you know this), and counter space is at a premium. I have a rolling cart with a butcher block top in IL and use it constantly.  One day, the idea to make a similar cart with a marble top popped into my head.  The result is shown at left - pretty simple, but very useful.

One downside of the open cart is everyone can see my extra sodas and ugly pans, so I covered the sides of the lower shelf with some old shutters.  I bought a few sets for $1 each in IL, boxed them up and flew them to NM (thanks again, Southwest Airlines!).  They were trimmed and painted before attaching with hinges.  

The toughest part was painting all parts of the shutters.  Note to all, spray paint is the way to go!  I sprayed the primer, but brushed on the final coats of blue.  It was time consuming and looks sloppy, but the shutters are down at knee level, so I'm fine with the result.  

In through the out door, Part 2

the old finish

In a previous post, I discussed the issues with the living room door.  As mentioned, I'm not 100% happy with this door, but it works and it's free, so it's great!  The next step in the door saga was painting to help it blend in with the decor.  One side was white (with many stains) and the exterior (now sunroom) side was wood with peeling varnish.

red on both sides of the room

After sanding for hours, I taped off the glass to prime all surfaces.  There were quite a few pits and gouges, but I left them as is (for character). The entire thing was primed and painted; sunroom side red to match the lockers on the opposite wall and living room side a pale blue-grey.  The funny thing about this project is now the door looks so good it's nicer than most of the other woodwork in the house.  I just can't win.