Upcycled Hand Cart Coffee Table Version II

By Joan
June 17, 2018
1 Comment

Welcome back. Today I have one more hand truck, hand cart, dolly (whatever you want to call it) upcycle for you. I love upcycling flea market finds into coffee tables and this is my second dolly to coffee table transformation. You can find the first one here. This one is constructed a little differently, so just pick your favorite.

The above picture shows the main supplies I would need for my coffee table. It’s funny, I’m looking at this picture and I’m realizing that all of these beautiful goodies were courtesy of other people looking out for me. The window is from my daughter in law’s , stepfather, the pallet wood is from my brother in law, the long pieces I’m using to build the box were from my son’s backyard when he finished a remodel, and the star of the show, the hand cart, is a flea market find my sister picked up several years ago.

OK, my sister wasn’t looking out for me, she intended to do something with the hand cart herself three years ago and never got around to it. So when I asked if she would like me to transform it, I barely had the question out before her husband was saying yes, yes, please, take it. That may not be an exact quote, but it’s pretty close.

Since I had already made a hand cart coffee table, I was sure I was going to make this one into something different….shelves. Unfortunately, the metal supports were oddly placed so I scrapped that idea and decided why not make another coffee table.

This time the top of the coffee table will be made from this old window.

Using 2×8’s cut a box surround for your window leaving an extra 1/4″ wiggle room for the window to open and close.

Assemble your box using long wood screws (3 inches or longer). I used 4 screws per corner.

At the base of the box attach a piece of pallet wood, or other scrap wood, on both ends. Nail from the outside with finish nails. I’m using a nail gun, it makes this part of the job so easy.

With the window inside, turn the box over onto a flat surface.

On both long sides of the box, place 1×2’s, cut to fit up against the window and nail in place. This will be the ledge on which the window sits when it’s turned right side up.

I was really glad I did it this way because I hadn’t realized that the ends of my window were two different thicknesses.

Cut pallet wood to fit the bottom of the box, but don’t attach just yet.

When I stole the cart from my sister I did know it was a muddy mess but I hadn’t realized the rot situation (or was it termites) going on at the bottom of the boards.

There was no way to replace the boards without taking the whole thing apart and I wasn’t about to toss it at this stage, besides, everything is salvageable.

What I ended up doing is cutting the wood back as far as I possibly could without getting into the metal pieces.

There is almost some good wood here.

I cut pieces of pallet wood to fit over the rotten area and sanded them well. I then just filled in the holes with builders adhesive and some more glue on that semi-good wood and stuck my new pieces on.

For some reason the fix worked better than I could have hoped for. Shhh, don’t mention my fix to any real carpenters. 🙂

This dolly was way too long for a coffee table so part of those handles would have to go.

Off came the metal part so I could chop thru the wood.

The box came back on so I could mark how much of the handles I wanted sticking out…no more than about 4 inches.

I’m just using those handles I just chopped off to prop up my cart to see where level is.

Take a measurement where you would like your legs to go.

My legs are from an old 2×4, notched to give them a little interest.

Sand the legs well then attach with long screws from the top of the cart.

Most of the dirt on the cart I cleaned up with a wire brush, including the rust on the wheels before painting with red chalk paint.

My wood box was a little too new so it’s getting the meat tenderizer, hammer, screwdriver, instant age treatment.

Time to paint. This is just a single coat of dark gray chalk paint.

I also sanded down the cut handles of the hand cart. They will also need a little gray/brown stain to match the rest of the cart.

Sand off any edges you’d like exposed and finish with vintage wax.

Do any paint touch ups. The red wheels also got a little vintage wax and the new feet and handle ends were painted/waxed to more closely match the rest of the cart.

This is the base of the hand cart where the rot was. I touched up this pallet wood with vintage wax mixed with just a little gray paint.

Where the arrows are pointing is where I screwed the new top to the hand cart.

Before installing the pallet wood bottom, sand each piece thoroughly then nail, screw or glue ( the choice is yours) those pieces to the scrap wood ends you installed earlier.

The pallet wood interior was given 2 coats of clear wax.