If you’re planning to entertain in your garden this summer, why not upcycle an old trolley into a handy bar cart or BBQ caddy – here’s how I created my garden trolley…
Are you ready for the bank holiday weekend and National BBQ Week next week?? If you’re planning to celebrate with lovely summery garden party, why not have a go at creating an outdoor bar cart/BBQ trolley like this?
I used Frenchic paint to create a bright aqua base and then layered doilies on to the top to make a pretty pattern. These are just plain white doilies from the pound shop that I coloured using spray paint. It only too a very fine mist of paint to turn them into sparkling gold and turquoise doilies. 
But my trolley didn’t always look so party-ready: This trolley was heading into a skip when I rescued it! And you can see why – it needed a new surface on the top and the varnish was peeling away. Still, it didn’t take too much effort to transform something unloved into a handy piece of storage that I’ll use all summer long.
If you’re planning a garden party to celebrate a special occasion, it’s a good idea to have a trolley like this so that guests can help themselves to drinks and leave you free to prepare the food or chat with friends. You could even spray paint a bucket in gold paint and fill it with ice and bottles of fizz so that your guests can grab a chilled drink whenever they get thirsty.
The step-by-step guide to making this project is in the current issue of Reloved magazine (Issue 54, if you want to order it online or download the digital edition). My trolley tutorial is on pages 73-75 so I hope you get a chance to check it out for yourself. Bonus points if you spot my teddy bear slippers in the step-by-step photos, haha!
By the way, I can’t believe how easily the Frenchic paint covered the trolley. I hadn’t used it before and when a TINY pot arrived I thought I’d need to order some more in order to finish the project. But no! The paint covered the shabby surface perfectly and only needed a light second-coat to finish it off. So there was more than enough paint in the little pot – what a bargain way to upcycle your furniture!
Let me know if you have a go at making a similar drinks cart for your garden and please tag me @Cassiefairy in your Instagram pics of your project. I hope you have a lovely time over the bank holiday weekend, whatever you’ve got planned!
