Truly Trash to Treasure

The other day I was on my way to work and passed something I saw dumped at the side of the road. Of course I had to turn around and check it out. I took it home to see if I could do something with it. It had a bent leg and another bent piece in back but I can't pass up free!
Here it is:

I walked it around the house setting it down in this place or that to see if it would work somewhere and decided that it should go on my front porch. Besides my pool area in back, my porch is one of my favorite spots to relax.

Now it was time to fix up the cart and my milk can which I have been meaning to paint for a while.
I found an old board in the garage, cut it to size with my trusty circular saw.

I got the idea here Ask Anna to make the design for my board.

I painted the board an ivory color with some brown accents. Then I burnt the edges of my paper to age it. Be careful if you try this. I wet my kitchen sink and light it with a bbq lighter a little piece of the edge at a time over the sink. Then I modpodged the paper to the board and added a bit of the brown paint on the paper. I put a coat of modpodge on it and then after it was dry, I sprayed some polyurethane over it for protection since it was going to be outside.
Here is the finished board on the cart:

 Next it was time to paint the cart and milk can. I used Krylon flat black paint

While they were drying I worked on making a stencil for my milk can. I designed and printed out our address on a piece of paper

I grabbed some contact paper I keep on hand. I found that I could see the design under the contact paper, so I used a marker to trace the design and an exacto knife to cut out a stencil.

I stuck it on the can and used the ivory paint to stencil the number on the can.

Here are the finished projects.

Did I mention that I love my porch?

I think the cart is a nice added touch. Best of all it only cost 10 bucks! Four dollars for a can of spray paint and six dollars for flowers. From the side of the road Wednesday, to my front porch today!