Bookworm Chic: Making Over a Salvaged Library Cart

You may remember a few months ago when Naomi, Brad, and I had one of the most thrilling experiences of our lives pillaging a local school (if that sounds like questionable behavior to you, make sure to read our post about it).

We scored so many awesome items, most of which have been lurking in our basements giving us the evil eye every time we go down there (or is that just Brad and Sam making those eyes?).

Well, I’m pleased to announce that this weekend, I finally got around to my first project using one of the wonderful pieces we scavenged and then painstakingly transported home with us: the library cart.

Here it is on top of the car:

And in Naomi’s driveway:

And now!

Let’s take a (brief) break from all the oooh-ing and ahhh-ing and start from the beginning. Even though this cart lives in my home, obviously I needed to consult with Naomi about what to do with it. Two creative minds are better than one, especially when they’re the creative masterminds behind the award-winning plastic cactus side table (fair warning: it will take us awhile to get over that project).

We knew that giving it a fresh coat of paint was the obvious first step. Add some books and plants, and it would be good to go. But of course, that’s just so boring. And Naomi is just so clever. She had the awesome idea of cutting wedges out of wood that would create a flat surface to place plants on, since the shelves slope gently backward. It wouldn’t be flashy, but just something a little extra. Sold!

Of course, Naomi’s creative genius left me with a bit of a puzzle, since cutting wedge shapes is actually more challenging than you might think. My first step was to go to Home Depot to pick up some primer (for metal surfaces), high gloss white spray paint (we decided white would make sense since the cart is already so interesting without a crazy color), and wood. I spent awhile wandering around the lumber section trying to figure out what size wood to get, and how exactly I would cut the wedges I needed. I was struggling.

But that’s when it hit me: rather than trying to cut thick wedges out of a single piece of wood, I could create wedge-shaped “feet” and then put a thin piece of wood across the top to create the illusion of a solid wedge. If that doesn’t make sense, keep reading — I’ll walk through all the gory details.

To implement this plan, I just needed a thin piece of wood to lay across the top of each wedge, since I knew I had scrap wood at home that I could use to create the wedges themselves. I came across this “multi-purpose underlayment,” which seemed perfect. My plan was to stain everything a dark color, so I wasn’t too worried about the exact tone or grain of the wood.

With my supplies in hand, I got to work. My plan was to build three of these “shelves”:

To do so, I needed to figure out the correct height and length to cut for the side wedges. Here’s where it got super scientific. First, I propped a level up on the edge of the shelf and held it so it was straight, marking where the level hit the back shelf. This told me the height of the wedge I would need to cut to create a level surface.

Then I used a measuring tape to measured the depth of the shelf to determine the length of the wedge. With those two measurements, I could draw out the wedge shape on my scrap wood:

The only additional factor was that the back angle needed to a little less than 90 degrees to fit snugly, but rather than trying to cut that with a saw I planned to just shave it down a little with sandpaper.

Next came the hard part: figuring out how to cut out the wedge shape on my table saw. A table saw blade is mounted in place, and you can’t just “cut diagonally” — the only way to cut at an angle is to hold the wood at the correct angle so that the saw can cut a perfectly straight line. If I were cutting a large number of these wedges, I would have created what’s called a “jig” — a piece of wood cut prepared such that makes it easy to cut other pieces of a certain shape. Something like this:

But I only needed to make six of them (two per shelf, with the goal of having three shelves total), so it seemed easier to just finagle the correct angles more informally (but safely!). I lined up my first cut like so, holding a piece of wood along the saw blade to make sure the straight trajectory of the blade lined up with my pencil mark. (Note: I didn’t keep that guide piece of wood there when it came time to cut, that was just for getting it lined up.)

Then I tightened down the clamp and rail on the saw to make sure everything stayed in place, using another piece of wood against the first to keep it even more snug. I was not convinced it would work, so when I succeeded in cutting a clean edge exactly as I needed it, I danced around with joy (and managed to snap a photo).

The wedge fit perfectly on the shelves:

Of course, I gleefully texted photos to Naomi plus ran upstairs to show Sam. He was very supportive of my extreme enthusiasm over a small wedge of wood.

I managed to cut five more, though it took me awhile each time to figure out the right orientation for the boards to cut the angles correctly. In retrospect, maybe the jig would have been faster…

Once I had my six wedges, it was time to cut the top pieces. I took my thin sheet of wood:

And used the table saw to cut a strip along one end at the same depth as the wedges. Then I cut the strip into three pieces, making each one a slightly different length so that some of the wedge shelves would be a little longer than others.

Next it was time to assemble the shelves. I matched up each top piece with two wedges, and coated the top of the wedges with glue (I didn’t think nails were necessary, given that these won’t undergo too much stress):

Then I set the wedges down on the top pieces:

In this picture the wedge is a little longer than the top piece is deep, which happened in a few cases — such is life. But I just to sanded off the excess once everything was glued down, so that the wedge and top piece were flush.

Next I piled books on top of everything to make sure the glue dried nice and securely.

Once it was dry, I was left with three little shelves:

Another dancing for joy moment.

The final step was staining them a dark color. I used Minwax’s “English Chestnut,” which I wiped on with a cloth, let sit for 15 minutes, and then wiped clean with another cloth to remove excess stain.

I let them dry for 24 hours, and the shelves were complete!

The other piece of this project was spray painting the library cart. This was pretty straightforward. First, I had to remove some pieces of tape that I found on the cart. Sure the tape lent authenticity to the whole “straight from an actual high school library” look, but…

I used a straight edge to scrape it off:

And then got the rest of the sticky residue off with Goo Gone.

Next I roughed the whole thing up with sandpaper.

Lastly, I taped off the wheels and covered them up with plastic bags to protect them while painting. (Or rather, I started painting the whole thing and then realized I’d forgotten to protect the wheels — but fortunately, caught it just in time.) I decided that I wanted to paint the top portion of each caster, and leave the rest metal.

I did a full coat of the “clean metal primer” (by Rustoleum):

And then once that was dry, followed it up with two coats of the high gloss white. I made sure to use thin and even coats, and it went on pretty smoothly without drips. The biggest challenge was just making sure to get in all the nooks and crannies.

One tip I will mention is that I always have such a hard time shaking the can for long enough in advance. It’s a good idea to shake it for about a minute to make sure you get a smooth spray, but that feels like forever. So this time around, I used the stopwatch on my phone to make sure I shook for long enough.

Once the cart was dry, my last step was to use some gold rub-n-buff (borrowed from Naomi, who first tried it in her magazine rack restoration) on the casters. They started out a very dirty and tarnished silver:

I just rubbed the rub-n-buff onto each caster with my finger, and it took about 15 minutes to do all four. Then I buffed it gently with a dry cloth. (I also gave the wheels a cleaning.) You can see the subtle gold feet in the after shots, below — I think it adds a nice touch.

The last step was to bring it upstairs, pop the wedge shelves on, and load it up with plants and books. And the verdict is: well worth dusting off my geometry skills!

So, what do you think? Have we successfully brought some “library chic” into our home?

(Sharing at Link Party Palooza, Remodelaholic, Tip Me Tuesday, Two Uses Tuesday, One Project at a Time, Thrifty Decor Chick, Remodelaholic, and Miss Mustard Seed – and Featured at Better Homes and Gardens.)