These days I think twice before throwing something out or donating it to Goodwill in the hopes that someone out there would be able to use it. Such is the story with this old tray.
Although the tray was a nice heavy plastic, it was big, it was plastic . . .and it was Christmas green. The tray was purchased several years ago to be used for cookies at the office Christmas party and it served it’s purpose more than once. You can see it has a ring of something stained on it, not sure when that happened. Even after cleaning, the stain remained, so it won’t be used for cookies any longer. I thought about donating it, but I was pretty sure no one else would want a stained cookie tray either, so I held on to it.
When I decided it was time to do something with this tray, I initially thought to turn it into a rope tray by covering it entirely with sisal rope. Just in case the green color showed through, I decided to spray paint it first. I gave it two coats with white spray paint.
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ToggleI started with the inside of the tray and began attaching the sisal rope to the sides with hot melt glue. I left the rim uncovered, still unsure if I really wanted to cover the entire tray with rope.
Next, I covered the outside sides with the rope, again using the hot melt glue. Then I stopped because I decided that I didn’t want to cover the entire tray with rope. I thought about a stencil pattern on the base, but I never found a pattern that I liked. At one point, I took a copper leaf pen and colored the rim, and then stopped again because it just wasn’t doing anything for me. I didn’t even take a picture of it, I just set the tray aside, not happy with what I had so far.
Weeks later, I remembered that I had a jar of silver Liquid Leaf and so I repainted the rim with the silver. I liked it. Then I painted the base of the tray with the silver leaf and I loved it.
I love the silver with the rope. The silver leaf gave it that faux galvanized look.
The tray needed handles. I thought leather handles would look awesome. I found an old leather belt and I cut out two handles.
I needed to punch holes in the leather to be able to attach them to the tray. I didn’t really have the proper tools for it, so I improvised. I used a standard hole punch to mark where I wanted the holes to be.
Then I used an X-Acto knife and cut out the holes.
This worked well. The holes I cut weren’t exactly perfect, but the bolts would cover it up nicely.
Holes were drilled into the sides of the tray and the belt handles were screwed on.
From looking at the finished tray, you would never guess it’s humble beginnings.
The tray is perfect for serving drinks on the patio. For me, it’s always satisfying to makeover something old into something useful once again.
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