Tray Chic!

As many of you know, I'm an Interior Designer and I love to transform existing items in my home to make them more customized to our color scheme or overall feel in a room. It's also a great way to create free projects which saves money while reusing and repurposing.

I have a dark espresso color serving tray that we received from my bridal registry a few years ago that has worked well until recently. Now that our new coffee table is the same dark espresso color as the tray, I thought it was time to paint it a lighter color so it would blend in better with the other items and at the same time, stand out.

I used some existing Behr paint that we had left over after painting our living room last year, so the tray now matches the wall color which is a great way to introduce a little bit more of the same sand-like color in the form of accessories. I gave it a light sanding and used three coats of latex paint (as I'm out of primer currently) and it turned out great!

BEFORE:

I was so excited to get started that I forgot to get a before picture of my actual tray. I pulled this one of the web as it looks identical in color and design, so you could get an idea of the transformation.

AFTER:

I love quick little weekend projects. I started this last Friday night and it was completely dry and ready to use by Sunday morning. I used a pale blue vase, a set of sand dollars, two books, one dark sand colored, one covered with white wrapping paper as well as a strip of cream and blue damask scrapbook paper. It is topped with a silver crab that I got for a $1 at a garage sale two weeks ago, that Potterybarn sold for $28 last summer! It's the perfect centerpiece for our new coffee table.

I was so inspired to paint last weekend that I bought a small white satin tester size paint can this weekend for $2.99 and was able to completely change the look of our bathroom undercounter space with just two coat of paint. It was a light beige color previously and white just looks so much more crisp and clean. It also matches the white framed mirror and some other accessories.

I hope I have inspired you to re-visit your old paint and find something wonderful to transform!

Have a wonderful Week!

Makeover Monday: Part 1-My Vintage Footstool Transformation

As I mentioned in Saturday's post, I have been working on a little footstool transformation. I took a vintage footstool that looked far too warn for our decor and revamped it! This footstool was handmade by my hubby's grandfather many years ago. While he is no longer with us, his memory will live on and my husband was thrilled to see that I was updating it so it could be used in our home. It will live in our guest bedroom/my office where it will be used to rest my feet and ease my back while working on my laptop. It can also double as a short stool in a pinch for extra seating too. The above photo is the finished product.

Here are the Before Photos




















The leather was covered over with new fabric by simply using a staple gun and new fabric and here it has one of its three coats of Olympic's 'Ivory Tower' so it will match the fabric. Below, I've shown how to tackle corners by tucking so that the all of the fabric lays flat.

A Work in Progress

I apologize for the awkward photo placement as blogger isn't always the easiest to maneuvre the photos.

I'd love to see what projects you've tackled. Take a moment and post a comment with a link to your blog!

HERE is the matching office chair that I redid. :)

~Karla