Colleen's house

Pink and White Wooden Tray {DIY}

Ah trays.  They make everything look better, don’t they?  If you put all that crap on your bathroom sink in a tray, your sink instantly looks like you actually clean it.  Same for all the crap that you throw everywhere in the entryway.  Put it in a tray and it actually looks like you organized it.  Genius.  I felt that our future guests deserved trays in which to put their crap as well, but I didn’t really want to pay for them.  When I realized that I had some plywood and moulding left over from a recent project (which I will soon share with you guys) and some paint laying around the house, I decided to get to work on two free trays for the guest bedroom.  Because free is way better.

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What you’ll need:

– Piece of square plywood (you can get the nice people at Lowe’s or Home Depot to cut it for you).  You can pick any size you want but I think mine are about 16″ x 16″.

– Strips of wood moulding (make sure you have enough to line the edges of the tray)

– White and Red Rustoleum Oil Based Paint or white and pink spray paint

– Wood glue

What you’ll do:

1) Measure the sides of the piece of plywood to figure out how long your edges need to be.

2) Use a miter saw or miter box to cut the pieces of moulding at 45 degree angles, with the inside of the piece being the width of the side of the plywood.  Lay the pieces up against the plywood to make sure they fit correctly.

3) This is the part where I recommend that you use spray or craft paint instead of oil-based paint because you will have to do several coats of each color and the brushes are a pain in the tuckus to clean.  Tape across the center of the square and paint one side and two of the pieces of moulding white.  This will probably take several coats no matter what you use so let dry and re-coat, and be sure to get both sides of the moulding.

4) If you are using oil-based paint, use a little tupperware to mix some of the red and white paint to make pink.  Once the white portion of the plywood is dry, re-tape so only the empty side is showing.  Paint the empty side as well as the two remaining pieces of moulding, letting the pieces dry between coats.

5) Use wood glue to glue to bottom edge of each piece of moulding to the edges of the plywood.  The most annoying part about this is holding the piece in place for 20 minutes while you are waiting for the glue to get sticky, so be sure you are watching something good on TV.  I recommend Downton or the Killing.  Use paint for any touchups once the glue is dry.

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  1. Stephanie

    It turned out great Colleen! I really like it. If you don’t want to clean brushes between coat – the little sponge brushes are very cheap. Just get several and throw away between coats.

  2. Megan

    Looks soooo cute. Can’t wait to put all my crap on it when I sleep there 😉 CS is the funniest.

  3. Lindsay

    Wow, that looks so good! I would buy this!

  4. Mrs LImestone

    Love the diagonal paint treatment – classic.

  5. Marilyn

    Very clever and actually very practical!

  6. Katie

    So pretty! Hey there Catsley!

  7. Taylor

    I love this, Colleen! Yall have done it again! Such talent 🙂 OH, and hey kiiiiiiiitty!

  8. Kelly

    Your kitty is sooooo cute!!!!! And a big helper I bet