From $5 Barstools to a Rolling Display Cart: An Upcycling Adventure
How two yard sale barstools, a roadside cabinet door, and years of saved treasures became a portable display cart that assembles without tools!
Sometimes the best upcycling adventures begin with a simple text message.
A friend was shopping at a yard sale when she spotted two wooden barstools and sent me a picture.
"Any interest for your craft room? $5 for both."
Did I need two barstools? Not particularly.
Did I have a plan for them? Absolutely not!
But they were solid, in good condition, and only $5 for the pair. How could I resist?
Little did I know those two stools would eventually become one of the most versatile display pieces in my Crazy 4 Castors booth!
Two Barstools and an Idea
The stools were already in great shape. They didn't need painting, refinishing, or repairs. Just a good cleaning!
But what could I make with them?
As I started experimenting, I realized that two barstools might make a wonderful foundation for a long, narrow display cart.
I love having flexible displays in Booth D4 at Cottage Antiques & Crafts. Merchandise changes constantly, and I'm always looking for ways to make better use of my space.
And, of course, being Crazy 4 Castors, I wanted my new creation to roll!
Shopping My Own Garage
Before purchasing anything else, I headed into my garage to see what I already had.
As it turned out, everything I needed was waiting there!
I found two wooden bases that could accommodate castor wheels. And I already had two brand-new sets of castors I'd picked up at another yard sale.
The seller told me they were intended for a patio umbrella! Half of the castors were locking, which made them especially useful for this project.
Then I remembered a cabinet door I'd rescued from the side of the road.
It had recessed panels that I thought could make an interesting tabletop. I also had some wooden slats salvaged from an inexpensive crate that had begun falling apart. Those pieces could fill the recessed areas of the cabinet door.
And the wooden supports for the underside of the top? Those came from a set of TV trays I'd previously dismantled!
I even had some hooks I'd picked up during an earlier visit to Habitat for Humanity ReStore.
Apparently, my garage had been collecting the ingredients for this project long before I knew I was going to make it!
The $15 Bookshelf That Keeps on Giving
One of the most useful materials came from a completely different project.
Back in the spring or summer of 2024, I spotted a simple, homemade-looking pine bookshelf advertised by Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Whitehall, Pennsylvania.
It was approximately five feet tall, with solid wood shelves and four narrow wooden uprights.
It wasn't particularly attractive, but I wasn't interested in the bookshelf itself.
I wanted those shelves!
For $15, I brought it home and dismantled it.
The shelves went into another bookshelf I'd purchased at Goodwill. I wanted to create a storage piece with enough adjustable shelves to accommodate different sizes of paint cans.
That Goodwill bookshelf was painted yellow and offered for sale in my booth. When it didn't sell, I painted it white.
Still no takers!
Today it lives in my home inventory room, where it holds paint inventory and some of my IOD mould-making supplies. Apparently, I was meant to keep it!
Meanwhile, I'd saved the original ReStore bookshelf's four wooden uprights.
I had no idea what I'd eventually do with them, but they were perfectly good pieces of wood.
And now, much later, they were just what I needed for my rolling cart!
Those former vertical supports became horizontal shelves connecting my two barstools.
Two entirely different projects from one $15 bookshelf. Now that's getting your money's worth!
Making Mismatched Materials Look Like They Belonged Together
One of the challenges of working with salvaged materials is that they rarely match.
The bookshelf pieces had a beautiful, warm, natural pine color that I wanted to preserve.
The wooden supports I'd salvaged from the old TV trays, however, needed a little help to coordinate with the rest of the cart.
So I mixed my own custom color using two different DIY Paint products.
My Custom Warm Honey Wood Tone
- 3 parts DIY Cottage Color Honey
- 1 part DIY Clay Paint Summer Crush
The resulting golden honey color coordinated beautifully with the natural wood.
I also applied DIY Paint Big Top to the natural wood pieces, giving them a protective finish while allowing their beautiful grain to remain visible.
And yes, I actually wrote the paint recipe on the lid of my leftover paint container!
I'm especially glad I did, because otherwise I probably wouldn't remember what I'd mixed. LOL!
Sometimes a little custom color mixing is all it takes to make a collection of mismatched materials look like they were meant to be together.
Figuring Out How Everything Fit Together
This wasn't a project that began with a set of plans.
It involved experimenting, moving pieces around, trying different arrangements, and figuring out how to make the materials work together.
The two barstools became the supporting structure, each mounted on its own wooden base with castors.
The rescued cabinet door became the top, with salvaged crate wood filling its recessed panels.
The repurposed TV tray pieces formed the wooden framework underneath the top.
The long bookshelf uprights provided additional horizontal display surfaces between the stools.
And those ReStore hooks found their way into the design, too!
As the pieces came together, I discovered something that made the cart even more useful than I'd originally imagined.
The Best Feature? No Tools Required!
One of my favorite things about this project is that the entire cart can be assembled and disassembled without a single tool!
The secret is in the wooden supports I attached underneath the top and shelves.
The cabinet door top simply rests on the two barstool seats. Wooden supports underneath fit around the seats, keeping the top from sliding sideways.
I used a similar approach for the lower shelves, attaching lengths of wood underneath that nestle between the barstool legs and prevent the shelves from shifting left or right.
No bolts, brackets, or complicated connections are needed to hold these removable pieces in position.
When it's time to transport the cart, I simply lift off the top and shelves and separate the two stools.
Everything fits into my sedan, and when I arrive at Booth D4, I can put it all back together without reaching for a screwdriver!
Portable, practical, and made from materials I already had. What's not to love?
From Garage Treasures to Booth D4
The finished cart gives me a long, narrow display surface with additional shelving, while the castors make it easy to reposition.
It's particularly helpful in a booth where every inch of floor space matters.
But what I love most isn't simply its usefulness. It's knowing where all those pieces came from.
A pair of $5 yard sale barstools, a free roadside cabinet door, a broken wooden crate. pieces of dismantled TV trays, leftovers from a $15 ReStore bookshelf, secondhand castors originally intended for a patio umbrella, and hooks saved from another thrifting adventure.
None of these additional materials were purchased specifically for the cart. Everything else was already waiting in my garage.
The Joy of Upcycling
I think this project perfectly captures why I enjoy upcycling so much.
It's not always about transforming something with beautiful paint or decorative transfers.
Sometimes it's about looking at ordinary materials and imagining what they could become.
And sometimes it's about saving a perfectly useful piece of wood until the right idea finally comes along!
The best part?
My new rolling display cart required just $5 in new purchases, plus a collection of salvaged materials I'd accumulated over the years.
Now that's my kind of adventure!
Thanks for following along with another installment of Amy's Upcycling Adventures.
Happy creating!
Crazy 4 Castors — Booth D4 at Cottage Antiques & Crafts, Allentown, PA
Visit Crazy4Castors.com for DIY Paint, Iron Orchid Designs products, creative inspiration, and more upcycling adventures.