Interior Shareapy: DIY Coffee Table Tray

What a steal! Coffee table trays can be easily spotted in a number of hobby/craft stores like Michael's Crafts, A.C. Moore, and Hobby Lobby. Pick up any style you want, some acrylic paint, and a foam brush. Some sanding may be required depending on how rustic your wood's surface is.

I chose to create a coffee table tray and a wooden decor craft with our last name and year of marriage.

Mainly, I chose to use Martha Stewart acrylic paint in the below colors (the mint is called 'pea shoot'):

I started out by painting the bottom of the tray, waited for that to dry, then used blue painter's tape around the perimeter so I wouldn't get any mint paint on the bottom of the freshly painted tray.

Next, I used a stencil and painted the center of the tray. The stencil design is optional, but I like how it makes the tray a little more unique.

In retrospect, I would not suggest even a small foam brush if you plan to use a stencil. I would instead opt for spray paint here, as I definitely encountered a bit of a bleeding problem.

For the Name/Year plaque, I also used blue tape to hold the stencil letters. Below is a photo of the push-out part of the stencil as a template to see how I wanted the final product to look.

Finally, when everything was dry, I sealed both the tray and my hanging wooden tray with clear wood stain to seal it. I chose a glossy finish, but a matte finish is also available.