Making my visual tea tray a reality

Good afternoon my fellow readers!

These past few weeks have been a whirlwind! With time to craft, ok…I’ve been borderline obsessed with recreating crafts I’ve seen, I decided one of my first projects would be a picture frame I came across that had been repurposed into a tray! Incredible, I tell you!

I originally saw the project here….

So I set out on the hunt for the perfect frame to transform. My immediate thought was the $ store but the styles were pretty limited. Yes, I know. It’s a dollar store and my options are slim. But a girl can dream right??

After buying out just about every organizational container at the $ store (more on that later) I headed to the Goodwill. It was here that I met my frame soon-to-be tea tray. I’m all about savings and considering I was changing up everything about the frame, I needed a pretty inexpensive one! Here’s what I landed:

This beaut cost me $10 :/ but considering the details, I love it!

After a couple of coats in Antique White, my tray was beginning to resemble my vision.

I am not at all savvy when it comes to crafts, brushes vs. sponges, matte or gloss, etc. I just go with what I think works. Very much trial and error style!

Halfway through my painting Boss comes in and bursts my bubble! “Well! Isn’t it looking great?!”
Boss: “Eh. I think it needs a lot more paint. There’s too many streaks. Why is all the brown still showing?”

Ok. Just go away. You don’t understand shabby chic!

I had some drawer lining that I bought at Michael’s about a year ago and just never got around to installing…but it came in handy for this craft! I covered the cardboard with it, placed it in the frame like a photo and was much more impressed with the look!

The last step was attaching the handles to it. I found a some hardware in a oil rubbed bronze and cringed at the $5 price tag, but thought they were the best choice. This is the point where I start regretting all the mismatched hardware and knobs I’ve thrown away over the years…if only I had kept them…

I simply hot glued the handles on and let the glue set.

Needless to say, my finished tray was magnifique!

Now it adorns my dining table! What do y’all think?