Aqua and White Vintage Tea Tray

As promised, here is the final reveal!  Remember the sneak peek I gave you yesterday?

And of course, let’s not forget how she started…

Dusty and rusty.  Ick.

But look at her now!  (For the record, I don’t know why all of of my furniture projects are referred to as females.  They just are, k?)

I love how bright and summery this tray turned out – and it’s the perfect catch-all for all of those pool necessities…

My tray started out pretty darn rough, aesthetically, but structurally in good condition.  The first thing I did was hit it with some hot soapy water and Windex to remove the dirt, grime, and cobwebs.  My towel was literally black when I was through!  Nasty.

I primed the tops of the trays with Zinsser Cover Stain, mainly because I planned on painting this with an oil-based exterior paint.  Then, I changed my mind and decided to use up the spray paint I had on hand.  The aqua was leftover from my Martha Stewart recipe box knockoff.

That changed the game plan, so then I disassembled the entire tray to make spray-painting easier.  I tossed the electric cord attachment that came with it because I knew I wouldn’t use it.  Then it was painting time.  The bottoms of the trays were very rusty, so I coated them with some spray primer to keep the rust from rubbing off on towels and such.  After that dried, I painted the tops aqua.

While the aqua was pretty, I wanted something a little extra… so I added a great script “swim” stencil I cut out on my Silhouette and then taped off the corner at an angle.

Then I taped off another tray for some stripes.

The spray painting didn’t end there.  The hardware and the railings were rusty and tarnished, so I sprayed them as well.  I used this great hammered look paint.:

(As always, Diet Coke was essential to the completion of this project!)

I used some leftover Styrofoam to hold the screws (to keep from spraying the threads).  Worked like a charm!

 

I spray the rails with the hammered paint also… and the end result was fabulous!  I seriously heart this paint – I want to spray everything with this now!

After removing my tape and allowing the paint to cure, it was simply a matter of assembling the pieces and moving her to her new home.

(Ignore the non-swept and wet patio – I snuck in pictures between rain storms!)

I am in love with this little cart, as always because it’s functional and beautiful.  It doesn’t hurt that I spent a total of 12 bucks on this project…

I’m hoping the littles in my home like it too, enough to put their swim things away when they’re done with them…

Who am I kidding?  This is the only time it’ll look like this!  Good thing I have a photo to remember it by… 

(and the little pooch that kept creeping in to all my pictures!)

Have you had a great find lately?  I wanna hear all about it!

Linking up with these fun places:
Be Different Act Normal
Tatertots and Jello
Whipperberry
Positively Splendid
Lines Across My Face
Brassy Apple
Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Whipperberry
Primitive and Proper
Sweet Little Gals
Miss Mustard Seed