Tray Magnifique

As this is the last tray I had to makeover, I seriously promise to stop using French puns as titles for my posts - probably. Anyway, Thursdays are starting to become my favorite days because Kimba's DIY Day and Gina's Trasformation Thursday are serious motivators to get projects done around the roost. Be sure to stop by their blogs and check out all the creative projects!



After finishing up a my beachy tray re-do X 2 on Tuesday, I was anxious to move on to the Goodwill tray I picked up on Saturday.

This little guy had great bones, solid construction, and a nice thick piece of felt on his bottom that made him the perfect choice for a catch-all on my newly made-over bench. He was just stuck in a boring place fashion wise. I knew I could take him from, "I'm here to present a budget to the board of directors," to "Bond, James Bond."

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First, after a little sanding, I applied several coats of matte black paint, because all men look dashing in a tuxedo.

I wanted to do something classic but fun for the inside of the tray, to play off the black and white numbers on the bench. After scouring my book shelves for something I'd be willing to pull apart, I spotted a 70's thesaurus with a cracked binding. Perfect! I cut the sheets into squares and mod podged them in an alternating vertical and horizontal pattern.

They were a little too yellowed for the graphic black and white look I was going for, so I mixed a tiny bit of white paint into some mod podge, and applied two coats to the top of the paper. Note: I really REALLY should have bought some painter's tape for this process. I managed to get little smudges of the white mod podge on the black. That meant I had to touch up the black, and while doing so, I managed to get little smudges of black on the white paper. I finally managed to mostly fix everything with the help of a wet paper towel, but I could have avoided the whole fiasco had I just bought some painter's tape. Once I finally got everything straight, I applied a final coat of clear matte mod podge over everything - paint, paper, the whole shebang.

Now I just have to decide how to place the tray on the bench. I can't choose between the classic vertical - AKA the George Clooney look.

The whimsical slanted - AKA the Johnny Depp look.

Or the casual horizontal - AKA the Tom Hanks look.

Hmm... decision, decisions.

<3

Hattie