So as a continuation of last week’s post on Breakfast in Bed, today I’m going to show you how I DIY’d the pretty monogrammed tray in the photos. Prepare to be wowed. You’ll never look through the IKEA as-is section in the same way again.
This was my idea…
1. That trays are expensive.
2. That a cabinet door would be about the perfect size to make a tray.
3. That a shaker-style cabinet door would have enough of a raised edge to prevent my coffee from sliding off onto my white bedlinens. It could happen.
4. That if I made it myself I could monogram it and personalize it just for me.
With that in mind I headed out to my local IKEA and searched through all the cabinetry pieces to find a cheap shaker style door, and I wasn’t disappointed.
I decided to paint it with a flat white exterior spray paint, just because I was looking for simple and fast, including minimal prep work. I did sand it a little to clean up some of the chipped edges, and to make doubly sure the paint would adhere. Ain’t nobody got time for doing things twice.
With three coats of paint in less than half an hour, I then left it till the next day to cure properly. That’s when I stencilled my initial on to two of the corners. I used the same process as in this post. Then I sanded some of the edges very lightly to give a bit of a distressed look, and sanded over the stencilling to soften it a bit as well.
Annie Sloan clear soft wax is miraculous. You brush it on with their wax brush then wipe it down/rub it in with a soft cotton rag, easy as pie. And you end up with a super-hard, durable finish with just a beautiful little amount of sheen.
Finally I added a pair of cabinetry handles to each edge, to carry it with obviously. And by “I”, I mean the royal “I”. Because it turned out to be all measure-y and math-ish and I was tired. I gave the thumbs up when it looked like they were going in the right spot. And vacuumed up the sawdust from the holes that were drilled. I’m sure you could do better than me.
I love how it turned out! It’s pretty but sturdy and with lots of room for coffee. I really hope I have a reason to use it soon. #hinthint
Till next time,
xo andrea
linking to sundays at home,
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