A side table tray

Oh my gosh...well hello! School is out for Summer quarter and having been so busy with my studies that I have had absolutely no time to do anything else. I'm not even exaggerating here; The Hubs cleans the house, cooks the meals and pretty much never sees me. Since I've been so busy the plan was to just relax, watch some of my shows that are on the DVR and eat bon-bons. Not the case, I have so much nervous energy in anticipation of my grades coming out that I needed a release.

Our side table that The Hubs built has kind of become another dreaded "catch all" place. The remotes, batteries, keys, hats, ipods, newpapers and books manage to land there. To combat this issue I needed a tray to corral everything. I had a tray for Christmas that I use on occasion for holding crackers and dip, that sort of thing.

As you can tell from the plastic that I am planning on painting it. I wanted the coveted Heirloom White but it was almost gone and I didn't want to spend the time doing my hair so I could run into town and grab another can from Home Depot. I know what you are thinking...seriously, it's Home Depot who cares if your hair is done. Trust me when I tell you this IT WAS AWFUL! It looked like what I learned in Biology about Codominance. You know where not one allele (gene) is dominant over the other but the traits do not blend. I had patches of curly, patches of straight and patches of wavy all on the top of my head. I was a hot mess!

I decided that I would use what I had and it came down to metallic brown or celery green. Being that it is summer and The Hubs complains about the entire house "being brown" I choose celery green. It is really a fantastic color.

Originally the tray was on the plastic and being that it was HOT yesterday it was drying fast and I noticed that the plastic was sticking to my tray. I acted quickly and put the tray on wood instead. I gave the tray 3 coats of spray paint. Oh before I forget, I did do a little light sanding, not that it helped in one particular spot. I will show you that in a bit.

Here is the spot, right on the stinkin' handle for all to see! I mean, come on...couldn't it be on the bottom...where.no.one.will.see?!?! No joke, I sanded that handle another 3 times and spray painted another 3 times but nada.  

Here is a closer look...see the red? UGH!

 

The red was here to stay. I thought this was going to be a bust until I remembered I had some hemp or jute or rope of some sort and could wrap the handle. I started by hot glueing the end to the inside of the handle then I wrapped the rope around a few times and then hot glued it in place. I repeated until I had the desired amount on the handle. The same technique was used for the other handle. 

Woohoo! I love it! It is so summery!

 I doubt it will stay like this for long. I'm thinking it needs something on the bottom to prevent scuffing and scratches. Maybe some lovely white tile. That would be durable enough to take a beating. For now I am going to enjoy the color and the bit of summer I brought into our home.

Oh see...no more red! Just celery green deliciousness and rope. Booyah! : )

Enjoy the rest of your summer! I will be back later this week with an update on the shop. You remember right, the shop we did last year? Well we have concrete AND next Friday we will have a door! YAY!