09 June 2012

Spray Paint Project: Wooden Trays

 If you've been reading my blog posts, you may remember that I'm in the midst of a craft room overhaul. As such, I've been keeping my eyes open for containers and storage pieces that I could use in my "new" space. When I spotted these bright green wooden trays a few months ago in the Target Dollar Spot, I couldn't resist. I knew the green color wasn't right for my room -- but that problem would be easily fixed with spray paint!
 
 Now that Bailey is home from college, I thought I'd enlist her assistance. She has spray painted a number of household objects in the past (lamps, frames, pots, etc.) so it didn't take too much coercing to get her outside on a recent nice day.

I found spray paint in almost the exact color of the room's newly painted walls. Sure, I could have just painted the trays with the wall paint, but I didn't want to see brush marks! This particular type of Rustoleum covered the trays extremely well -- and with no sanding!

  After one coat, we put the trays in the sun to dry on waxed paper. We didn't want them to stick to the newspaper! (Been there, done that!)

After an hour or so, the trays were ready for a second coat.

The finished trays looked fabulous! But I wasn't quite done...

To make the trays more decorative, I found some awesome green paper in my stash and some cool kraft paper at Memory Bound. MB also carries thin acrylic sheets which are perfect for this type of project. I measured the inside of the tray and cut the pieces to fit. (I cut the acrylic sheets with my Fiskars sliding blade trimmer -- it worked fine, but I did need to use a bit of extra pressure.) There's no need to glue down the paper, as the acrylic sheet holds it in place. That will make it easy to change paper, too.

You can't believe how excited I am about the finished trays!

Here are the trays, with the fabric I'm using somewhere in the room (probably for pillows). Everything I'm putting in the room needs to match the colors on the fabric! :) I like to use trays to corral small items when I'm working on a project. Otherwise, I think the trays will look great anchoring small containers, such as my covered ribbon jars!

 Happy, happy, happy!

5 comments:

Heather said...

Very nice!! I need to see if our Target has some of those trays. My aunt has one similar to that and someone filled it with corks laid on their side. I've been saving corks to make one of my own but haven't found a tray yet. I love the scrapbook paper in them, by the way!

Heather said...

I came to reply to a comment that came through my email subscription, but it's gone. I don't blame you. :op I just wanted to say that I love what you did with the trays. They are very classic looking and will look great in your new craft room!

Janet said...

Oop, Heather -- I just now accidentally deleted your comment! In fact, I was in the process of commenting but you beat me to it! LOL Thank you so much! I love how the trays turned out. It's been awhile since I bought them at Target but it's worth checking. The cork idea sounds really fun!

Heather said...

My comments are still there...looks like you deleted the comment by the person who didn't like your color choice. Oh well! ;)

Janet said...

I replied to that one and then accidentally deleted all of them! If that person stops back, I truly did not mean to do that! :)