Factory Cart Coffee Table

Back in August I posted about Justin and I buying a very neglected factory cart. I was so excited to get it but we got wrapped up in working in the garden, then a ton of work activities and eventually I forgot it was even stored in the shed or garage somewhere.

Justin has been secretly working at his daddy’s on “my Christmas present” for a week now and the factory cart didn’t even cross my mind. I was expecting a bench from a salvaged headboard I bought a month ago or some picture frames for my still un-hung gallery wall. Imagine my surprise when I walked into our living room and found this beauty!

Justin lovingly restored this beat up cart and turned it into the centerpiece of the heart of our home: our living room. I am beyond excited and am so grateful I have such an amazing husband. I tell folks that he gives me more blog material with his awesome projects and that I’m just the documentarian.

This time, though, since it was a surprise I wasn’t around to snap pictures of the process. Lucky for me, Justin did that for me too! It is so neat to see the process and the improvement after all of his hard work.

Hardware pulled off the old cart and sand blasted.

All of the pieces hung to be primed.

  

 

This wood is very special. The two end pieces are the original oak boards that came from the cart. The top pieces are planed boards from an old barn we were able to tear down last summer. Justin stained all of the wood to match and coated it with a semi-gloss polyurethane.

 

He had to dry fit the hardware to be sure the holes were all in the right places. This is why you see only the primed hardware and the unstained boards below.

  

I love that he kept some of the old wood pieces in tact. The bottom brace is original.

 

Finally, one small touch that he didn’t photograph that I really think is amazing is that he used his branding iron to brand his initials into the underside. Hopefully this will be a family piece that we can pass down to our kids but if for some reason it gets sold, it’s really neat to know that Justin has left his mark on his handiwork.