Thrift Store Tray Makeover

A forgotten and unfinished thrift store serving tray is finally getting a completed makeover for this month’s ‘Do It Over’ Designers challenge.

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I found this dated-looking serving tray in a thrift store last year. I thought it would be a good item for my vendor booth, with a makeover, of course. But once I started working on it, I just didn’t like how it turned out the first time. 

So I left it in the craft room, untouched and unfinished, for months. Almost every time I walked into my craft room, I had to move it out of the way. And each time, I thought about how I needed to return to this forgotten little serving tray and give it one more chance.

For this month’s ‘Do It Over’ Designers blog hop, I finally decided to try it again.

This post is part of the ‘Do It Over’ Designers link party.  A group of designers who take something old and/or unused and ‘do it over’ into something new. These items can be found in closets, barns, garages, yard sales, thrift stores, you name it!

Sometimes you have to return to a project later to finally get it right.

This is how it looked when I pulled it back out of the craft room for this challenge. 

Only the inside had been changed from how it initially looked.  I will have to show you that part below since I can’t find a full photo of exactly how it looked when I brought it home, and before I painted the inside to cover the dated flowers. 

But I have a couple of photos of the painting process over the dated flowers.

As you can see, the inside bottom of the tray had these faded and dated-looking flowers. Months ago, I sanded it down and painted over it with gray chalk paint.

Then, I painted a simple modern stencil down the middle of the tray. It looked better, but I was stilln’t convinced the piece was “finished.” 

I’m sure everyone can relate to the feeling of working on a piece, making improvements, but not knowing if those improvements were worth it. You may also struggle with the realization that if you keep working on it without knowing what to do next, you may ruin it altogether.

So I stored it away when I had more inspiration for the piece.

Tray Makeover Take 2

I pulled it out again for this challenge, took a hard, long look, and asked myself several questions.  What did it need?  What was wrong with its look now?  Why didn’t I like it yet?

In the end, I finally figured out that the wood’s color wasn’t quite right with the gray paint, so I decided to give it a white wash effect.

A white wash effect involves adding watered-down white paint to the wood, letting it dry for a few minutes, and wiping off the excess to leave behind a more textured and aged-looking wood.

I added two teaspoons of white acrylic paint to 4 teaspoons of water and mixed them well.  The ratio is usually a 1:2 mix for white washing paint.

I then started adding the paint mixture to the tray’s wood frame, allowed it to dry for a few minutes, and wiped off the excess.

In some areas, I had to treat it twice with the white wash paint to get the look I wanted, but this process worked perfectly to age the wood of the tray.

I let the tray sit for a few days for the paint to cure and dry thoroughly.

After applying the white wash layer and allowing it to dry, I knew the tray probably needed a coat of acrylic or wax to seal it. Since I finally liked the rustic look of the tray makeover, I decided to use some clear furniture wax from my stash as the top coat on the tray. 

The last step for this serving tray makeover was to apply a thin coat of clear furniture wax to the entire piece and wipe off any excess after a few minutes. 

This little serving tray looks new and is ready for someone else to enjoy.

Be sure to visit all of the other bloggers who participated this month in the ‘Do It Over’ Designers challenge.

Pandora’s Box

Purple Hues & Me

Southern Sunflowers

Interior Frugalista

The Apple Street Cottage

Birdz of a Feather

Cloches & Lavender

Exquisitely Unremarkable

Little Vintage Cottage

Modern on Monticello

Sum of Their Stories

Hugs,

Matthew 5:7 “God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

We have even more crafty projects for you to enjoy.  Check out this one for So Easy Fabric Covered Notebooks, or this one for a Painted Burlap Table Runner With Scalloped Edges.