This Bar Cart was a fun little project I built for a client who is a mining engineer and a wine connoisseur. The overall design of the cart was taken from a miner’s dump cart. When planning the design, I visited a mining museum here in Colorado to get reference material for the design. I found that actual mining carts are awkward and ugly in proportions, designed to fit as much dirt in them as possible and still be manageable.
Since I wanted the bar cart to be stylish, I took some liberties with the authenticity of the design to make it look sexy. I made the wood portions of the top, inner arch, and wine rack from ebonized oak. The rest was fabricated from mild steel stock. The base is a 3” channel, the bent arch is a 2” flat bar, and the frame around the top was fabricated from angle iron.
I picked the hook up from the tractor store and fabricated a mount to attach it to the cart. I also cut off a trailer tow kit for the D ring on the other end and fabricated the mount for that.
The wheels came from a collector that the mining museum referred me to.
I added a patina to all the steel, kind of a black and rusted color, using a Cupric Nitrate solution. The framework is adorned with large rivets to help tell the story of how an authentic miners’ cart would be assembled.
I made the bucket out of oak and added a light Japanese finish called Shou Sugi Ban. This gives the overall bucket a lovely aged patina.
I also included a screenshot of my SketchUp drawing that I used to present the design to the client.
Bar & Wine Cellar Accessories
