ikea kitchen cart update

i guess they are called ikea hacks.  there's a whole website with diy ikea hacks and i. love. it.  i want to buy everything and hack it all.  so we have had this ikea kitchen cart since shortly after hubs and i got married.  it has moved with us from one greenlake apartment to another and then to our house.  i like it, it's functional and inexpensive.  but not special or nice looking in any way.  and since my goal is to make my house look nice, cozy yet functional, it was time to take on that cart.  if you read my previous post about the kitchen shelf update that i finished recently, then you could see that i wanted to move the cart to the dining room for now (as a placeholder until i re-do the dining room, i'd like to get some sort of sideboard for that area in the future) and put a shelf-y type thing in the kitchen, something that would hold my cook books and some other items better than the cart did.  so hubs and i were consulting about the best way to paint this thing and i really didn't want to take it apart because it was such a pain to put it together.  i considered using the paint sprayer that we have, but wasn't sure.  i decided i would just paint it even though painting each individual rung on the shelves was going to suck.  i decided to use a paint color sample that i had used previously, a benjamin moore color edgecomb gray.  i went to lowe's to pick up some spray primer because i thought that would be easier.  when i got home i lightly sanded the cart, but nothing too much because i just didn't want to, haha.  then i wiped it all down and applied the spray primer.  it coated so easily and quickly that i decided to use spray paint to do the entire cart.  except for the top, i had always planned on staining the top a dark color.  so back to lowe's.  took me a minute to pick a color because they didn't have something comparable to the edgecomb gray, so i finally decided on valspar spray paint in silver fox, flat.  it applied so easily and nicely.  after one coat i very lightly sanded with 220 grit sandpaper, wiped it down and applied the second coat.  it was so so much easier than hand painting all four sides of each rung!  i was so excited!  it was quick and left a factory like finish, so smooth.  then it was time for the top, i gave a good sanding with 180 and 220 grit, wiped it down, applied wood conditioner, then after five minutes i applied the stain, i think it was ebony.  i only applied one coat of the stain because it was the color that i wanted, then i coated it with polyurethane.  i let it dry for a day in the garage and then moved it inside because it was too cold to cure properly.  after a few days it was all done.  and i lurve it!!!  the only thing is that the spray paint was very fumey and stinky.  i had to apply it in the garage but even with the door open and a mask on it was unpleasant.  and made the inside of my house smell, so i had to open all the windows and let the freeeezing air into the house to air it all out.  so i'm not sure, if i do that again i'll either do a small section at a time or take it completely outside. anyway here is the end product:

this is the best place for it in the dining room, but something a little bit longer would go better it think

before and afters:

before, very plain and begging to be updated!

and after!

     i still have to do a couple last things to finish it up and i want to maybe add some baskets to the shelves to hold some stuffs, but the hard part is done!