Elementary Organization: finally: diy factory cart table.

Ohmiword, y'all. It's finished. To say I am WIGGING OUT THRILLED would be quite the understatement. You might remember that several months ago, I was drooling over this Restoration Hardware factory cart table...

...and back in May, I showed y'all my blueprints, plans, and blog inspiration for making the table on my own in order to avoid the Restoration Hardware's tiny $1600 price tag. Now, before we get going, I must say that I have the most AMAZING broski-in-law who worked with me for two days straight in order to complete this project. While he did have to do a bit of welding in order to help make this table become a reality, he ASSURES me it would have been possible for me to do on my own had I purchased the proper supplies. #ichoseprettybeforepractical

Alright y'all, enough waiting. With my blueprint in hand,

...I headed to a local wrecker service. Yes, a wrecker service, not Home Depot! I chose to go to a wrecking service because I know that my strength is not in making something new look old. All of the pieces I have tried to shabbi-fy in the past have turned out looking like something a 3 month old could be proud of. I knew that if I wanted this piece to look antiqued and aged, I would have to buy antiqued, aged wood. Enter wrecking service wood yard.

Yes, I believe we can find some wood here.

With the dimensions of my table in mind, I began selecting pieces of wood that were fabulously worn and tragic looking. The sadder looking, the better! As I chose wood, my brother-in-law helped me lay them out so we could see which pieces would look good together while also mapping out the dimensions of the table.

After collecting all of our wood, we also snagged several rusted iron corner brackets that we would place as end caps on the corners of the table. Forty-eight dollars later, we had our supplies!

Once home, we again laid out the pieces of the table top and began making exact measurements so that we could trim the wood into appropriate lengths.

As we trimmed each slat, we arranged the wood to make sure we liked the placement of each slat in the overall "look" of the table top. Once the table top pieces were trimmed and edges were sanded, we then cut two "ribs" for the underside of the table top that would help add stability to the finished table.

We then nailed each table top slat into the two ribs so that our table top was complete and was ready to nail to the sides of the table.

With the table top complete structurally, we applied a thin coat of Tung Oil to give a slightly darker tint to the wood and to protect the wood.

We also spray painted all of the iron pieces that would be used with a flat, black paint.

Our next task was to drill into the end sides of the table and added two u-bolts per end. These u-bolts would be used to hold small, iron casters in place on the ends of the table.

We also drilled holes into the iron corner brackets...

...applied a bit of wood glue to hold the bracket in place...

...and screwed the brackets onto the four corners of the table.

My how industrial you are looking, dear table!

Now remember how I said my super broski-in-law had to do a bit of welding in order to make my dream a reality? Here's why:

The wheels. No, that's not your perspective making the wheel on the right look smaller. I fell in love with the spokes on both wheels, but the wheel on the left was 22 inches and the wheel on the right was 17 inches. My love sickness for the spokes meant that my partner in crime had to saw off 5 inches from the larger wheel and build an axle to connect the two wheels. Thanks, brother.

Like I said earlier, had I bought the proper supplies and not fallen head over heels for stupid spokes, this step would not have been necessary. But some things are worth the work, because check out that final product: