Starfish Design Coffee Table Tray

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Turn a thrift store find into pretty coastal decor. Give it a weathered paint look and add a fun quote with vinyl letters for a one of a kind Starfish Design Coffee Table Tray.

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Last year I shared a coastal tray makeover that I gave to an identical tray as this one. I found them both for $2.99 each at my local Goodwill. Both of them now have a starfish design, but I learned a few things when I did the first tray.

Thrift Store Find Tray Makeover with Starfish Design

I’m happy to again join the monthly Thrift Store Challenge group! Each month participants are challenged to:

Upcycle an item(s) from a thrift store, resale store, or garage sale into a new piece of decor.
There’s no monthly theme.
There’s no budget to stick to.

Our Thrift Store Upcycle group of bloggers is looking to expand — and we need your help! Why not consider joining in our thrift store upcycle challenge on the last Thursday of each month? Make some friends while having fun and share your love of DIY with the world. It’s a win-win! Sound like something you’d be interested in? Just leave a comment at the end of this post with your blog name and someone will get back to you right away. We can’t wait to meet you! Let me know what you think. Thanks!

Meet the Hosts!

Angela | Simply Beautiful by Angela
Beverly | Across the Blvd
Gail | Purple Hues and Me
Kathleen | Our Hopeful Home

The most important thing I learned after giving the first tray like this a makeover is that instead of just painting over the designs on the tray, they needed to be sanded off. They were all decoupaged onto the tray and when I painted over them, the surface wasn’t as smooth as it needed to be.

Using a piece of medium grit sandpaper worked well to remove the bears and flowers.

I used a link free cloth to remove all of the dust from the tray after sanding it.

Next, it was time to start on the transformation from a child’s tray to a coastal tray. I gave it two coats of DecoArt Chalky Finish Paint in Everlasting.

There is no one way to create a weathered look. It’s all about paint colors and blending. For this tray, before the white layer was dry, I gave it a coat of DecoArt Chalky Finish Vintage paint, using an old cloth to blend the two colors.

For areas that I wanted more of the white to show through, I used the cloth folded over my finger to wipe away more of the bluish gray paint.

To add more of a weathered look, I used dark wax. I used wax instead of paint because it’s easier to wipe away most of it.

After adding and then wiping away most of the wax, I topped it with more of the Vintage paint, wiping and blending it into the wax.

For the base of the tray, I used a cloth folded over my finger and added streaks of dark wax and blended until I was happy with the look.

Protecting any tray from scratches or water rings is easy to do with a couple of coats of DecoArt DuraClear Gloss Varnish. Allow it to dry before adding any other design to the tray.

I searched Cricut Design Space for starfish and found this fun “Wish Upon a Starfish” quote. After resizing it to fit the tray, I cut and weeded the design. I also found a simple starfish design to use.

I like to use transfer paper instead of transfer tape for my Cricut projects. It’s usually less expensive and it works great.

Supply List for Coastal Coffee Table Tray

Thrift Store Find Tray
Medium Grit Sandpaper
Lint Free Cloth
White and Blue Paint
Dark Wax
Paint Brushes
Dura-Clear Varnish
Cricut Machine and Weeding Tools, and Vinyl (or use self adhesive letters and designs)

Turn a thrift store find tray into a weathered coastal decor piece with paint and vinyl letters. #coastaldecor #beachtray #starfishtray #repurposeit Click To Tweet

I added a light coat of DuraClear Varnish over the letters to project them. Now, instead of a cute child’s tray, I have a budget friendly starfish design coffee table tray that goes well with my other coastal decor.

If you’re like me and you love having trays of all kinds, but you want to keep the cost down, you can beat finding them at thrift stores and giving them makeovers. Have a look at some other thrift store tray makeovers.

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