Making Old New Again: Metal Tray Makeover

At my garage sale last Saturday, I came across a tray that was looking pretty shabby, and I decided I would sell it for $0.25 and get it out of the garage.

I used to use it as a tray for a houseplant, but it had gone unused for several years.

What the tray looked like before painting.  Good bones, but not usable condition.

I kept looking at it and decided it had such great "bones" I would try my hand at giving it a little makeover.

I cleaned it up with a dry rag and found some old Krylon indoor/outdoor robin's egg blue spray paint I had in my garage. If you have something like this and it's really corroded, you may need to sand it with a very fine sand paper.

After one coat of paint, I could see a beautiful gift emerging!

A few coats of spray paint brought it back to life!

 I sprayed the top and let it dry, and then flipped it over and did the same. All in all I gave it three coats.

I love how it turned out! This would be the perfect addition to the gift for my sister-in-law's birthday!

I ended up using a different, more colorful bouquet for her gift.

At a garage sale a few months ago I purchased this pretty tea cup for $3.00. The jasmine tea was also also on sale for about $3.00. The vase I ended up using was free from a neighbor looking to get rid of it, and the flowers were from my yard.

The "new" tray, a vintage tea cup, Jasmine tea and flowers from the garden.

The tray really brought everything together. The gift was so pretty, there was no need for wrapping! My sister-in-law loved her gift and wanted to start looking for trays she could spray paint. It was simple, easy, and quite frugal at only $6. Best of all, she used the tray that very evening!

What have you made-over lately?