A Garden Tray – an alternative Royal wedding day souvenir

“Why don’t you put the paste table up and then you can paint them all in one go” said Mr M, in that exasperated tone when he caught me wandering around the garden with arms full of half painted objects and no where to dry them. The trouble is, when I get a creative idea, I just have to get on with it. I know I should plan ahead, think where the drying process will take place, blah blah blah, I just don’t; and if I did, I worry there will be a) no time for my creative moment itself and b) I’ll forget what my creative moment was anyway, an occurrance which seems to be happening with alarming regularity these days. It was a little while ago one Saturday morning when I had planned to do much needed gardening, that I got terribly sidetracked into painting an old jewellery drawer and turning it into a vintage garden wood serving tray. It was to be more precise, a french jewellery drawer picked up on a cold and rainy morning at silly o’clock at Kempton Park Antiques, when most sensible people were still fast asleep in bed…

I was with the friend you will recall from this story and she was doing much the same on this shopping trip as she had done then. Looking at me in that strange way that says “what on earth are you going to do with that” and if I’m truthful I didn’t know at that point it would become a garden tray. I had my creative moment when I should have been doing the gardening as I mentioned earlier. So I took the drawer covered in a sad leatherette type lining and blasted it with the jet wash until I was left with the bare wood.

Then it was a quick sandpaper over, followed by two coats of Sadolin Superdec paint (RAL 7047 to be precise) leftover from when we experimented with colours for Belle and the jewellery drawer was transformed…

Mr M and I had been invited to celebrate the royal wedding with our friends and I wanted to take a special gift to say thank you for a wonderful day. I knew ahead of time it would be you see, our visits always are. I also wanted to commemorate the historical day and so on the underside of the painted drawer and using this technique, I transferred my chosen message. I’ve used this transfer method before and you do have to find your patience. Points to emphasise, don’t make the paper soggy with the water, you’ll just end up tearing it. Do exactly as the clever lady tells you in the tutorial and it will work. Oh and you do need an inkjet photocopier. And we are on our way to making our garden wood serving tray!

The final transferred image or words are always light and pale; you just go over them with a pen, Sharpie or acrylic paint and let it dry. If you are unsure how to ‘flip’ your words so they appear back to front on your paper and the right way round on your chosen item, this tutorial is very helpful.

One benefit to the vintage chippy look I favour, is that you are able to reduce the impact of your mistakes with sandpaper. If you look at your letters and think to yourself I could do so much better, don’t worry, keep going and sand away at the end. Then seal your finished design with a craft sealer like this. In time and when exposed to natures elements, your garden wood serving tray will simply become more vintage.

Then I painted a few wooden plant markers and used my letter stamps to name a couple, again sealing with the spray.

I knew this stencil had been admired on pots in my home and garden, so using a simple white emulsion I stenciled the bumble bee onto a vintage terracotta plant pot and filled with a young geranium. Although traditionally we see geraniums in outdoor pots in summertime, I love watching these grow inside on a warm, sunny windowsill. And zinc planters are always a winner, so I filled this one with a basil plant and added this lovely terracotta plant marker I found at good old Wilko’s.

Finally I added a homemade heart and a seasonal flower garland, you can read about making those here and a pretty sign for the kitchen I bought from a local shop on a recent trip. And of course no royal wedding is complete without champagne to toast the happy couple…

Although I have decided this is a garden wood serving tray, it doesn’t have to be. Perhaps it would look pretty on an outside table with condiments and cutlery for an alfresco lunch. Or maybe in a bathroom with pretty glass bottles and essential toiletries. I’ll leave that one up to my lovely friend to decide. Do you have any plans to celebrate the royal occasion? If you do, I hope you have a wonderful time creating special memories; I know we will x