DIY magazine tray

My husband and mother have conspired to send me and Baby Wonder to California for November. Since it is a challenge to take care of myself, the house, and especially my two year old terror, I will be shipped off to my mother's care for as long as possible until I am no longer allowed to fly, at around 34 weeks along. My dad will come and fly with both of us, doing the workhorse share of flying with Baby Wonder. I do not envy him.

My husband will get the rest he needs, and has not been getting since our adventure in the hospital, and my friends and family here will be able to take a break before we come back in December. I will get to rest with a backyard view of the ocean and take long baths in my parent's soaker tub, and Baby Wonder will be so overwhelmed with attention by my parents and brother that he won't have time to realize how crippled I am. Win-Win situation, if you ask me.

Since I have only a couple weeks left here to complete the scheduled doctor's appointments for myself and Baby Wonder, as well as finish up his birthday party planning and get a few last minute crafts done, I have been busy! Luckily, most everything I have to do can be done sitting down. Anything else, I have my pack of friends for. They can take their limping, pregnant friend to the store, do birthday party crafts, or help me build a birthday cake. LOVE YOU GUYS!

Since I have limited time left in my own house until the Christmas holidays, I want to try and get as much done as possible. I have a few projects that I've wanted to work on, and since Mom was here for so long, she was able to help me get the majority of the supplies so I could craft when I had the chance.

This tray took less than a nap time to build, and as an added bonus, requires no strength past applying wood glue and decorative nails. My kind of project!

I have to say that I LOVE the Shanty2Chic sisters. A lot of my DIY projects come from them, and if you're ever interested in working with wood to make things for your home, that is the blog to check out. Or you can just stick around here, because I am slowly making my way through their entire project gallery!

I wanted to make this tray here for a while, so I buckled down one afternoon and got it done. This project is super inexpensive (my favorite part) and you certainly can't find a match in a store for anywhere close to a comparable price.

Here's what you need:

1- 1x3" furring strip, 5- 18" pieces
1- 1x4" furring strip, 2-12.25" & 2- 19.5" pieces

If you don't know where furring strips are in your Home Depot, ask. These are the lowest grade of lumber, so my HD lumber guy told me when I asked, so they are the most inexpensive. Great for projects like this.

Bring these measurements to HD with you and ask nicely to have them cut.

I also used decorative metal L angles, but they are not necessary. They can be found in the LUMBER section for .58 cents a piece. There are similar ones in a different aisle, packaged, that come 2 for $4. Sneaky, sneaky, Home Depot. I got the handles in the hardware section for about $2 each.


Here's how to do it:

Assemble your 5 18" pieces so they are side to side. Secure to each other with wood glue.

Attach your shorter side pieces (12.25") to each end with another thin layer of wood glue.

Then attach your longer side pieces. You can use finishing nails to secure the ends together. This allows you to continue with the project while the wood glue dries.

I swear I had step by step pictures of this, but that no longer seems accurate. No idea what happened to them! You can tell by the finished pictures how it was put together.

Now for the painting/distressing.

I found this method for distressing wood, and I really like how it turned out. Here is how I did it:

You will need two different colors- the color you want your finished project to be (mine is Heirloom White spray paint by Rustoleum) and the color you want showing through the distressed parts (mine is dark walnut wood stain by MinWax). You can also use an acrylic paint, either in brown or another color if you want.

Begin by staining or painting just the parts of the tray you want to show through.

Next, apply a THIN coat of petroleum jelly to however much you DON'T want covered in your top coat. The petroleum jelly will prevent your paint from sticking to the stain, allowing it to be rubbed and sanded off with no effort.

Then spray paint your top coat on evenly.

OOOPS. got the grass. and the patio.

After it dried completely, I took a few paper towels and just wiped off the jelly spots. The paint came right off. Take a fine grit sandpaper to those spots to smooth them out, and it comes out great!

Add your handles and decorative corner brackets.

Now I know I said it is supposed to be a magazine tray, and really that's what it was called in the original blog. But I'm a mom who hates having kid crap all over the place. So this tray has become a diaper caddy, and it fits in perfectly under our coffee table. It's nice having a home for all the diaper changing things, especially since we will have twice as much in the next couple months!