Wooden Tray Makeover TAKE TWO!!

Hello, sweet friends! I’m back today with a redo of a redo! I’ve got a wooden tray makeover for y’all that I originally redid using some scrap wood slats I saved from a crate. It has been sitting in my shop longer than I’d like, so I brought it home to give it a quick update!

I’ll walk you quickly through the original makeover, and then I’ll share the second rendition.

Let’s Get to it!

Here it is as I found it originally at the thrift store for only $4.99:

That was a steal for this solid wood tray! It did take me a really long time to get to this one because it was so nice as it was. I had even considered just putting it in my booth, but the truth is, there was really nothing unique about it. It looked like it could have come from the Home Decor section at Target.

Clean

This tray had become quite dusty hanging around the garage, so it got a good cleaning with my favorite deglosser and degreaser, White Lightning…

(Look how pasty white I get in the winter lol!)

(These terrycloth applicator pads are perfect for this step!)

I had this crate thingy that a wreath I purchased came in:

I had taken it apart and saved all the slats just in case…

And I knew I wanted to use them to add something to the bottom of this tray like I did HERE and HERE.

I cut them all to fit:

They were then painted, sanded and sealed, and then attached to the bottom using Liquid Nails…

I skipped a lot of details, but you you can see them all in the original makeover HERE.

Wooden Tray Makeover After

Here is how this tray looked after it’s first makeover…

And a closer peek…

Super simple, and I just knew it would sell quickly.

Except it didn’t. Usually stripes do very well for me, but this hung around much longer than I thought it would.

It is very large and square, and it was difficult to find a good way to display it:

(See all of my booth updates HERE!)

Wooden Tray Makeover Take TWO

SO, I ended up bringing it home and giving it a refresh!

This was sealed with Clear Coat and when using Dixie Belle’s Chalk mineral paint, that can be painted right over!

Paint

My plan was to paint it white, stick it in my booth, and call it a day, so I started there.

While I was spray priming the chair I shared on Tuesday, I hit this as well:

NOT because it needed to be primed, but because this is any easy way to get a quick first coat on. AND, I wanted the paint to get down into the grooves to cover the blue completely.

Next, I painted it in Cotton from Dixie Belle:

When that was dry, I gave it a quick sanding with a fine grit sanding sponge to smooth it out. (These are great when you want to smooth out the surface, but don’t want to distress, and I didn’t want any of that blue peeking through!)

Change of Plans

Although I had originally planned to just paint it and be done, I just couldn’t leave it there. So, I dug through my leftover transfers, and pulled out the pieces I had left from the Pastels Artistry transfer and started arranging them:

This transfer originally came in a large size, a Middy, and a Maxi version.

I used the large one on a dressing table HERE.

I only have the Maxi version left HERE, but it has very similar pieces to what I used here.

Then, I applied the pieces of transfer with the burnishing stick that comes with the transfer:

I continued adding until I was satisfied. Transfers can be cut apart and arranged any way you like!

Once I had them all applied, I used a razor knife to cut the transfer along the seams, and then I used a finishing pad to be sure it was adhered well: