Upcycled Thrift Store Tray - Create Make Decorate with Nikki

Today I am sharing with you a little upcycle of a tray that I picked up at the thrift store. It was pretty as it was, but I thought it could be a little better! The tray is a pretty good size and was perfect to turn into a riser. It also has handles on it, so that makes it handy to be able to carry around if you choose to use it as a beverage holder, food or whatever you would like.

Trays are usually a common find over at the Thrift store and you can often get them for little cost. I picked this one up for roughly $5.00. They are great to use in your decor to add an elevated look. I love to style mine in different ways all throughout the year. I’ll show you a few different ways that I have styled my upcycled thrift store tray here in a minute, but first let’s get started on how I gave it a little makeover first.

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I first began by giving it a fresh coat of white linen chalk paint by Rust-o-leum. This has become one of my favorite paints to use. It goes on smooth and distresses very easy.

Once the paint was dry, I took a sanding block and distressed the edges up a bit.

I headed on over to the graphics fairy and grabbed this beautiful printable. I ripped the edges off with my hand to create a softer edge and then applied it to the tray using mod podge.

Next, I applied some Antique Wax with my paint brush around the edges of the paper to make it look a little weathered and worn.

While shopping around Hobby Lobby one day, I came across these candle stick holders in the wood pile section. I decided to grab a pack and I’m sure glad that I did. They made perfect feet for the tray to stand on!

How to style an Upcycled Thrift Store Tray

There are many ways that you can style your Upcycled Thrift Store Tray. I’m going to show you four different ways that I have used mine so far. When styling a tray, I like to think of a theme and then go from there. In this one, you can see that I used a bird theme. I paired a book with a bird on it, a small bird cage and the small round canister has a bird on the top where you would lift the lid off. I added some greenery to soften it up.

Angels are the theme in this next one. I used another thrift store flip with the books. I simply painted the covers of three books and tied some ribbon around them. This is another great and inexpensive way to create a riser. I gathered a few other angel themed things from around the house. You will see that I like to used bead garland as well for a little bit of color and a filler.