DIY Painted Chevron Tray{Not What I Had Planned....}

2.13.2012

So, being new in Blog Land, I thought, I need to begin my first project! On Sunday afternoon, I began a mini painting/organizing thingy… That didn’t quite go as planned… I’ll share more on that later in the week.

Since that flopped out as a project, I began to wonder what in the world should I start? Oh, don’t worry I have about a gazillion project ideas. (Remember, it’s basically a new builder basic house)

Yet, I have 2, well, how about 3 major obstacles….

My thumb… You can read more about that here. I’m still recovering from surgery and it doesn’t really want to cooperate much.
We own some apartments and we are in the middle of renovating them, which demands a lot of my time.
I have to work…. Well, part-time, I work as a cashier in the cafeteria at the local high school.

So, I feel that any big jobs are going to take a long time to complete. But we’ll get there!!

I’m focusing on taking small bites.

Soooo…..

Here we are the day before Valentine’s Day! I know! I should do a little something for hubby. Okay, I know it’s last minute, but that doesn’t matter.

I thought of something super cute (I’ll share that tomorrow!) But I needed something to display it on. A tray! This will be perfect! Of course I don’t have any, so I went to the local AC Moore with my handy dandy 50% off coupon and picked one up for $3! Oh, I’m so excited to share this will you!

First I must apologize the lighting on these pics do NOT do it justice. It's late... no good light...have to use the flash...but I must finish!!

I’m going to paint a chevron design on the tray, something like this….

First, I primed it, which I’m sure most of you know to do.

Then I took a sanding block, and sanded it down to smooth out the bumps. Primer loves to soak into unfinished wood.

Then, on to the first coat of paint. Now don’t ask me what the color is because I found it in my basement and I have no idea how old it is or what I may have painted with it. But it is this lovely grayish whitish color.

Ok. First coat dry and I sanded it again! One more coat and then the coolest chevron pattern.

I took a piece of poster board approximately 1”X 4” and laid it in the tray like so…

Traced it with a pencil and then laid it the other way and so on….

I just kept going across the tray and down several rows until I was finished. Then I laid the painter’s tape along the traced lines.

I first painted the taped areas with the tray color, it helps the lines to come out clean.

Then when that coat dried, I painted the contrasting color. I’m going to use a REALLY old can of blue paint… we’ll see how it comes out.