A tray table makeover, how to turn souvenirs into decor and cottage updates

As the title suggests this post is a little meandering 🙂

So first off, I had a busy back to work week, but I’m so excited to share an Ottawa Citizen interview I did recently that has been published online this past weekend. It’s on how to turn vacation souvenirs into decor items that will fit with your home’s style and decor.  And yes, that’s my powder room featured with some Paris vacation photos turned into art.

Read it here.  

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In my last post, I mentioned that I had done a few DIY projects at the cottage, while on vacation.  Well, here’s another one.  I was a bad blogger and forgot to get a before photo but trust me, it looked just like this but with a totally damaged top (due to being left out in the rain one evening…d’oh).

 

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I sanded the top and even smoothed on some polyfil to try and even it out.  I then painted it all over, with some of my leftover Fat paint in a custom blue that I used for my bathroom vanity.

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I did paint the legs after this photo was taken.

I knew I wanted to do some sort of pattern or stencil on the top but hadn’t figured out what, until I was inspired by some pretty striped fabric I saw.

So out came the painters tape and some little jars of sample paints that I have hanging around, that I thought would go together well.   And, I just randomly laid down the tape some with thicker stripes and some with thinner stripes.

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Then I just painted some lines.

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The first pass turned out like this.

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Not quite enough stripes, so I added more tape and kept painting.  I also fixed up any little boo boos.  You can nicely see the tree shadow on this one, as I was painting outside on the deck.

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My final step was giving it two coats of semi gloss varnish to protect the top, as I fully intend to use this tray for serving drinks and snacks on the deck 🙂

Ta Da!

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And hubby made a ton of progress on the glass railing.  I am so happy to see the old, rotting wood railing gone, I actually couldn’t stop smiling all day!  We are really hoping to have this part finished up soon.  Just one more side to do, that will have to wait for next year’s budget.

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Lisa


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A great weekend and some exciting news

Well, it was an exciting weekend for me.  It was our last long weekend of a fabulously beautiful summer, and we spent it with family at the cottage.

But on top of that, I had an interview and photo published in our newspaper, the Ottawa Citizen. WOO HOO!

Click on the paper to read. If you are interested in seeing the entryway I’m talking about in the article, click here.