Break the Mold With This Ikea Bar Cart Hack

As much as I’d love to get something a bit different, furniture shopping anywhere other than Ikea definitely isn’t in my budget. But, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t come up with some crazy and cooky way to turn my boring Ikea furniture into something super unique, and totally Vicki.

I spend a lot of time on Pinterest looking at everything from how to make soap—to how to make a Harry Potter prophecy ball. So you bet I’m also going to come across some sweet Ikea hacks in the process, too.

When it comes to bar carts a lot of people have taken the utility carts that Ikea sells and turned them into dope bar carts that they can be proud of. Armed with this inspiration, I decided to do it myself. If you look up “cart” on the Ikea website, you’ll see that there are a lot of inexpensive options that are all great on their own, but totally worthy of a sweet upgrade too. I already owned the SUNNERSTA cart, so I was ready to spring into action to give myself the bar cart of my dreams.

Other than the cart itself, you only need a few things to get started. Spray paint, contact paper, and of course—booze and other fun things to fill the cart with. Oh, and if you’re really so inclined, you can make a rad letterboard sign to show off as well. When it comes to contact paper you can find a variety of marble designs pretty much anywhere. But as trendy as marble is right now, I wanted to go with something a bit different and a lot more me. I couldn’t find what I was looking for on Amazon or in stores, so I took to Spoonflower; a website specializing in custom fabric, wallpaper, and gift wrap to make my dreams come true.

You’re probably thinking, “Well Vicki, how to do you plan on using wallpaper, fabric, or gift wrap in replace of contact paper?” Spoonflower sells removable wallpaper, which in my mind is basically the exact same thing as contact paper. It’s a little less sticky, but for my purposes it worked just the same. I was able to choose a stunning design by one of the artists, but you can also upload your own designs and get those printed too. Once I had my custom paper, I decided to go with a satin black finish spray paint, and I had my bar cart and all it’s fixin’s. It was time to get started!

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Instructions:

Step 1: If you are using the SUNNERSTA, you may want to wrap the wheels in painter’s tape. I decided not to paint them because I liked the contrast of black and white, plus I was worried they wouldn’t spin as well if they were spray painted. We are only going to be spray paint the sides and handle of the cart, not the shelves. So if there is any other part of the cart you don’t want painted, now is when you would use the painter’s tape to block those off.

Step 2: Take the sides and handle of the cart to a well-ventilated area and spray with your paint according to the instructions on the can. You’ll need 1-2 cans for this, so I’d recommend getting a second can just to be safe.

Step 3: Place your shelves on the contact paper with the good side facing down. Measure around the shelves and cut according to size. I kept a little extra around the sides so I could cover the sides of each shelf as well. Make sure you cut a space where the holes for the screws are!

Step 4: Carefully remove the back of the contact paper and attach it to the shelves. The best way to do this is to peel back a little bit of the back of the paper, line up the sticky side on the shelf, and slowly pull back the remaining backing as the sticky part adheres to the shelf.

Step 5: Once you’ve put the contact paper on all the shelves, it’s time to put the whole thing together! My cart was super simple to do with just an allen key. Putting it together was actually the easiest part.

Step 6: Add your bar cart fixin’s and pour yourself a drink, you deserve it!

There you have it, your very own grown up bar cart that no one else is going to have. I’ve only had this in my home for 24 hours and I already feel like a baller! So who is coming over for drinks?