An Up-cycled Tray and a short story of a change in direction

I’m writing today’s blog over at Belle’s. It’s a wet and drizzly day and I am warm and toasty with the little fire crackling, my electric blanket turned to full on the vintage bed (our little secret, best not share with Mr M) and not at all discouraged that springtime appears to be off the agenda for now. This week I have a quick and pretty up-cycled tray to share with you. There are endless possibilities for it’s use, not just the obvious and for a mere £2 it was yet another lucky find. Before we take a look at the tray though, I have some other news to share with you…

As many of you know if you’ve read here before, my little blog was initially set up to record the renovation and build of our bungalow in the countryside. A sort of on-line scrap book of the process, warts and all. It was not long ago our planning permission was approved and we excitedly began thinking and organising for the build. Then in a total change of direction, a wonderful business opportunity presented itself to our daughter, who you have all come to know as Little Miss. As with any new business, there is much to do and for now, Little Miss needs our support and we want to give her just that. So Mr M and I have decided to take a step back from our building plans for a short while to fully focus our efforts where they are needed most. And why am I telling you all this? I absolutely love writing my blog and sharing my stories with you. And judging from the wonderful feedback I get, you seem to quite like it too. For now though, I felt it only fair to let you know, my stories will be minus any building work and heavy on craft and painting, home styling and up-cycling. No different really than what you currently get, maybe not though, what you signed up for initially. In the coming months the stories will also feature the many wonderful garden projects we will be undertaking including a small fruit and vegetable patch. And of course beautiful Belle and my adventures with The Spotty One will never be far away. I hope you will stay around and enjoy our new direction and when we do build, I hope you will join in with that too.

And so onto this weeks up-cycled tray, which looked a little sorry for itself when I found it at the back of a shelf in a recent charity shop trip…

I painted it as I did here with the Crafty Susan, minus the chalk paint…

Then I stenciled a rose motif into the centre of the tray applying chalk paint with a cotton pad. I’ve used rollers and sponges in the past and somehow the paint always manages to bleed; dabbing lightly with the cotton pad works wonders…

And then I sealed the design and the tray itself with my new clear wax which gave me a bit of a fright since it doesn’t look too clear to me. My last pot of wax had long since lost that wonderfully nostalgic smell. Once the new tin was opened I was immediately transported back in time to my Grandmothers warm and cosy home and her many wood furniture polishing days.

If you follow me on Instagram you will know that I’ve recently begun a new hashtag, #tuesdayshomestylingtip where each week, I offer simple styling ideas for the home. Recently I showed four ways I like to style a hurricane lamp and that got me thinking how this tray might be best used differently. After all I have enough trays to serve food and drinks on. I do not however have a beautifully painted tray on which I can place a glass plate and lots of candles of varying sizes…

Or a tray to put in the centre of my painted sideboard with the glass plate and pretty glass bottles reflecting light and form…

For these ideas of course, the dainty rose stencil is covered over. No matter, when the tray’s not in use, it could store like this in the kitchen to enjoy it’s wonderful new look…

Or I could of course simply load the painted tray with coffee to keep me fuelled at Belle’s…

My current favourite idea for this inexpensive tray, is to fill it with a great many pretty glass jars gifted to me by a dear friends kind and lovely mum. For now at least, I shall keep it at Belle’s where I can see at a glance fire-starters and tealights, essential oils and stationery. In fact all manner of pretties and ephemera currently needing a home…

I’m on the look out now for another which I shall fill with handpicked goodies for a hostess gift with a difference. And I wonder if, in keeping with this weeks post there are any old wooden trays lying around your home waiting for a change of direction? Until next week…x