Neutrals Serving Tray

Happy National Craft Month! All month long we are sharing easy-to-make craft ideas from home decor, like today’s serving tray by Sabrina Alery, to party planning, mixed media, and more. Be sure to subscribe to our blog and follow us on Facebook to see more projects all month long.

The front entry of your home always seem to be the place that things collect. Bags, jackets, backpacks, and not to mention the papers! Papers to sign, homework, flyers, mail and more. To keep that space clean and tidy, having some sort of catch all for these items is essential. This neutral serving tray has been painted shades of white, brown and black to serve exactly this purpose.

Along with making a great catch-all, this tray also creates a pretty focal point on a desk or side table. The neutral palette ensures this piece can easily be repurposed in another room should we ever choose to redecorate.

To begin, I masked off a third of the tray with painter’s tape before applying a layer of dark oak stain. We just happened to finished staining our floors this same shade so it worked out perfectly! The stain allows the wood grain to shine through!

Be sure to wipe the extra stain off before allowing to dry for about 4-6 hours. You can also try a shade of brown paint if the wait time is too long.

Next you’ll want to remove the tape and reapply over one edge of the stain. Paint this part black. Don’t forget the sides and inside of the handle!

When the black paint is dry, repeat of the other side with white paint.

Too add an extra bit of something, I went one step further. On the black portion of the tray, I diluted some gold paint with water before creating paint splatters with the paint brush. Just dip the paint brush in the mixed color and use your fingers on the paintbrush to splatter the color. The way used this same method with gray paint. Definitely not necessary but it does look nice.