book shelf or bar?

My husband is a great carpenter.  He comes from a line of great carpenters, and he has been a carpenter since he was 18. The man can build. When I was planning our wedding I would go onto Etsy (my addiction along with Pinterest) and show him all the awesome things I wanted. He would then get annoyed at how much people were trying to charge for the simplest of things. Pretty much anything with a mason jar and some chalk paint for at least $50 bucks. There was a lot of head shaking on his part... Recently I picked up some new fabric to reupholster a foot stool, and just never got around to doing it. One day he found the materials in my linen closet, and pulled them out, 30 min later the foot stool was done and beautiful. (my fabric choices were perfect of course) Well after this, it was ON!   We went around looking for great bones to re-finish. We found some great pieces this labor day weekend, two book shelves, a desk, and a set of 8 chairs from the 60's, and so much more. He has been busy in the workshop ever since he is starting with one of the bookshelves. It was pretty decrepit, covered in a million layers of paint, and rat poop, so he had his work cut out for himself.  ( Like a nerd, I forgot to take a true before pic, so all I have is the pic of what it was like after he cleaned and sanded, but before the magic happened,)  He has disassembled the whole thing, and sanded it down. 

We have been back and forth on what to do with it. Should it be a bar cart or a bookshelf? His company does large commercial construction work, but as a favor to their benefactor, they are renovating his mansion in SF. The scrape materials coming out of this place are phenomenal! I cant believe the things that are being thrown away. We have been lucky enough to get a few pieces of beautiful thick wood planks that will make a great bar top, but we both feel like this particular unit is just too narrow to be a bar.We are thinking of a great shelf unit with a pop of color, and texture paint on the inside of the shelves. But of course I have my eye out for the perfect piece to make  into a bar cart. I mean really who doesn't want a bar cart? And really why cant it be both? You decide.

He decided to go with a real farmhouse finish for it, and I think it came out great. The top is reclaimed from the mansion, he sanded it down and then varnished it, but the color is original to this wood. We really lucked out. The best part of projects like this one is even if you have ideas of what you want it to be, the details don't really take shape until you start working the piece. He and I talked about at least a dozen different ideas for this piece, but in the end, the back board, color and top just came together.  Well I suggested the casters, but mostly because I hate moving furniture when family comes over. Boom- a star is born.