Recommended Tips:DIY - Tea Cart Makeover

Today I feel wonderful! Today, we finally managed to finish the second area in our Big Backyard Makeover right before the summer kicked in full-force. But the rest of the areas will have to wait until early Fall, as they involve a lot of transplanting. Besides, Connecticut summers are perfect for paint projects, so I don’t want to miss the great weather for all the makeovers I have to tackle. DIY – Tea Cart Makeover!

You may remember this little tea cart from some pictures in my previous posts. We bought it two years ago at a tag sale for $20. It was in pretty good condition, with only a few scratches on the top. But it wasn’t anything special, made from just a cheap plywood and veneer, hence the bargain price.

As it wasn’t made from real wood, instead of giving it to Greg as a project, I decided to paint it. To do so, first I took it all apart and cleaned each piece with a damp cheesecloth.

Next I prepared my homemade chalk paint in Old White. I normally use the recipe below to prepare my homemade chalk paint. But that is for brush painting and it is a little too thick to use with a paint sprayer.

Homemade Chalk Type Paint Recipe

1 Cup of Latex Paint (Any color)

4-5 TBS of Calcium Carbonate

1-2 TBS of Talc

Water (as you deem necessary)

Since I will be spraying a lot this summer, I had to modify that recipe to make it work with my Wagner Paint Sprayer. Below is the pinnable image of the recipe, if you’d like to pin it for future reference.

Homemade Recipe for Spray Painting

1 Cup of Latex Paint (any color)

4-5 TBS of Calcium Carbonate

1-2 TBS of Talc

1/2 Cup of water

After preparing my homemade chalk paint, I started prepping my spray paint area and filled my Wagner with paint. I have to say this little machine was the best gift Greg ever gave me! It is such a time saver!

Since that experience with the Homeright, Greg stopped going anywhere near my paint-related tools. When he told me he wanted to get me another paint sprayer, I told him I was going to do the research and finally decided on my current one simply for one reason: the Wagner has 2 different front end kits (the sprayer head) that fit the model I have, and that gives me the ability to use the sprayer for different types of paint jobs. Of course, having the ability to change the front end kit also means my sprayer will never become idle like The Big Dripper did….that is even if Greg ever decides to use it! Seriously…all it will take is buying a new front end kit (sprayer head), and I have my machine back and spraying wonderfully again 😀

Anyway… enough of my yapping. Back to the makeover…After cleaning each piece I took apart, I covered the parts which I couldn’t disassemble with aluminum foil…

…and gave the entire thing 3 thin coats of paint. With my Wagner, it took no time at all!

Next, I gave every piece a slight sanding with 320 grit sandpaper. That was so I would have a perfectly smooth surface all over. While I was at it, I also distressed a little.

Once the sanding was done, I vacuumed the dust off of every piece and once again wiped the all the pieces with a damp cheesecloth.

After getting every piece nice and dust free, I started waxing them with Annie Sloan’s clear wax.

When working with Annie Sloan’s wax, I always work in sections. I brush some wax on…

…then I wipe the excess with a cheesecloth and buff it a little. Since I buff everything with an electric buffer at the end of the project, I don’t spend too much time to make it shine while waxing.

After I finished waxing, I grabbed my $5 tag sale buffer and buffed all the parts.

Next, it was time to reassemble the cart.

And here is our finished tea cart!

Although along the way I was contemplating whether to put stencils on it or not, in the end I decided not to. I am so glad I didn’t, because sometimes just simple one-color paint and a little bit of distressing is more than enough to give that refreshed look I love.