DIY Tray Makeover

I love myself a bit of DIY and it's no secret that I have a pretty humongous big crush on all things "Martha", so when I discovered the fabulous range of Martha Stewart stencils at Michaels I knew it was time to combine my two loves.  And, coincidentally, a few weeks earlier I had bought myself a couple of vintage trays from a Habitat for Humanity store for $1.75 each, planning to DIY them in some way, shape or form.  I also wanted to try using spray-paint.  I haven't had much luck with it in the past but I constantly see it being used beautifully all over the net, to revamp anything and everything, so I decided to have one last crack.

I started off by giving both trays a light sand and cleaned them both with a damp cloth.  I then painted the trays white using an acrylic paint, not a spray-paint.  I didn't think the spray-paint would cover the dark colours very well and I probably would've had to do a whole load of coats for even, full coverage which just seemed like a waste of time and paint so I applied two coats of plain white with a brush. If I had used a primer underneath I probably would've gotten away with just one coat of paint - but I didn't have any primer so I just laid the paint on nice and thick.  

Once it was dry I got ready to stencil.  I decided on which design I wanted to use (I chose the "Arabesque" stencil set which comes with a variety of beautiful patterns to chose from), played around with the positioning and then sprayed some spray adhesive onto the back of the stencil and stuck it down.  I was having trouble getting the stencil to stick to the tray where the tray curved - no matter what I did it kept pulling away.  I tried adding more adhesive, adding tape and also just holding it down with my hand as I sprayed (dumb, dumb idea).  I didn't think it was going to end well but I grabbed my can of "Island Splash" spray-paint and sprayed away anyway, giving it a couple of coats back and forth.  Once I had the coverage I was happy with I hesitantly pulled back the stencil, hoping for the best, but kinda knowing it probably wouldn't be fabulous.  This is what I found ...

A dismal effort.  It was official - I sucked at stencilling!  I was close to throwing it in the "too hard basket" but stubbornness won over and I decided to have another go.  I sanded off the majority of the blue stencil, added another two coats of white paint, chose a different stencil - one that wouldn't be affected by those pesky curves in the tray - and opted for a different colour.  This time I went with a yellow called "Sun Yellow".  I followed the same process as before - positioned the stencils where I wanted them on the tray, added some spray adhesive to the back, stuck them down nice and firmly and then lightly sprayed over the stencils using a back and forth motion.  I felt more confident this time.  I had high hopes for success.  I peeled back the stencils hesitantly.  This is what I found ...

Hoorah-freakin'-hoorah!  I had done it.  It had worked.  No bleeds, no blurs and no blobs!  Thank goodness for that.  Now I needed a cup of tea and about a week before I even began to contemplate DIY'ing the second tray.

Here's the tray in action - serving up a nice cup of tea and a muffin to enjoy on the porch.  Doesn't she look lovely? I'm so glad I was patient with her.

For the second tray, I envisioned stripes - again, using spray-paint but tape instead of a stencil.  I also wanted to use yellow again - for some reason I just wasn't sold on the blue.  I had already painted the tray white so it was just a matter of adding some painters tape where I wanted the stripes.  I was very lazy with this and didn't do any measuring - I just whacked the tape on where I thought it looked right.  

I then sprayed on a few light coats of yellow until I had the coverage I wanted.  While the paint was still wet, I pulled off the tape - not so hesitantly this time (full of confidence now!) - and joy of joys it worked.  Hap, hap, happy days! 

I am not exactly sure how or where I will use this tray but it's such a versatile little thing and could be used in a heap of different ways.  It could be used to serve drinks.

To hold my massive jewellery collection.

Or even just to brighten up the dinner table.

It doesn't really matter - it's cute, it's bright and it's a happy little thing to have hanging around in my house.

In the end I'm glad I persisted with the makeover and gave these little gems a new lease on life but am I now a spray-paint convert?  Ummm, not necessarily.  The same effect would've been achieved with normal painting but I think for some stencilling purposes spray-painting may be much quicker and less labour intensive than having to use special stencil brushes and stencil paints, but then again you have a lot more control and no over-spray to worry about, so I'm not sure.  Spray-painting worked for me this time and I will definitely try it again but I'm divided as to which method I prefer. I guess ultimately it just depends on the project.

Anyway, for fun, here's a little "before & after"...

Have you spray-painted anything lately?  Did it work?  Were you happy with the result?