Monday, May 31, 2010

Serving Tray



While doing my usual look and see trips to thrift stores, I found this picture frame for $9. It is quite huge.

It takes up about half the size of my coffee table, which is also a blanket chest.

I removed the picture and the glass. I went to Home Depot to get plywood, the same size thickness as the glass that I removed. I thought of re-using the glass but it was very heavy and I was afraid it might break if I dropped the tray by accident. I got the very nice man at Home Depot to cut it to the exact measurement I needed.

I lightly sanded the frame and then sprayed it with primer.  After that, I sprayed it with Rustoleum's Heirloom White paint. (I realised that I forgot to take photos of this process)

I cut some fabric arond the perimeter of the plywood. I had this fabric from a while back and was wanting to experiment with decoupaging with fabric instead of paper. I used Mod Podge Outdoor, which I had to buy from ebay because it is not that easily available from the major craft stores.  They only had the normal ones. The MP Outdoor is said to be waterproof, so I thought it might be the right one to use.

I had to do it in two halfs, first I lifted the first half off and using a paintbrush, I spread the MP on the wood. Then I pasted the fabric down, removing any air bubbles that might have formed.  Next, I worked on the other half of the fabric, repeating the same steps.

Then, I coated the top of the fabric with MP. It has a creamy texture but once it dries, it is clear. I followed the instructions to let it dry for 15 to 20 minutes before sealing it with a second coat.

I placed the plywood back into the frame.  Note that I had painted the back of the plywood the same colour as the frame.

This is what the finished product looks like.  I am not entirely pleased with the surface of the tray because it is sticky, unlike my other decoupage projects wshere I finish it with shellac.  The thing with shellac is that it goes yellow with age, so I thought Mod Podge would be the answer to shellac. It is far from satisfactory and I will need to experiment with other finishes like polyurethane.
 
Ok...I admit it, there is no coffee in the cups.



2 comments:

  1. Impressive....you must love the craft stores!

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  2. All Things BeautifulJune 2, 2010 at 8:17 AM

    Looks good over here! I like the idea of re-purposing... Had a great week recycling my old jeans into a tote. You can check that out at my blog.

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