Painted Herringbone Tray

I was checking out the clearance section at Gordmans the other day and I found a bright red plastic tray for $2.  I have been redoing my bedroom over the past year and am now on the look out for the finishing touches--art, accessories--you know, the fun stuff!

I have a habit of tossing things onto the top of my dresser and I really am trying to keep it clean and clutter free.  So when I saw that bright red tray, I loved the idea of it corraling all of my jewelry and change and random junk but I didn't love the color.

Enter the power of google and the ever powerful spray paint.  Here is how I made that $2 red tray into something that I love.

I really wanted to incorporate a herringbone pattern and I wanted to use only items that I already had around the house.  I googled and came across this on etsy and knew that I could replicate it quite easily.  I wanted a little more color so I opted to make the outside of my tray a lovely blue to match my bedroom.

As I said, the tray started out red.

For the first part of this makeover, I used spray paint and a sanding block.

I lightly sanded the tray and cleaned it off.

Then I primed it.

Painted it white.

I waited 24 hours (so that the spray paint could harden and I wouldn't have to worry about chipping) and then I turned it upside down and painted the outside blue.

After waiting another 24 hours, I gathered my materials for the second part of the makeover: black craft paint and a tiny paintbrush.

I freehanded the herringbone pattern as shown in the picture below.

Step 1:  Paint vertical lines to form sections.

Step 2:  Between two vertical lines, paint an angled stripe from the line up to about the middle.

Step 3:  Paint an angled line from the middle down.

Step 4:  Paint a vertical line down the middle of the section.

Step 5:  Fill in as many angled lines as you'd like to achieve your desired look.

For the final step, I painted a black border around the inside of the bottom and top.

I love how it turned out and I love that it is cute and useful, too!