Our living room has made a ton of progress in the past few months. Once we get curtains and hang the gallery wall, it will pretty much be finished! (Aside from wanting a different coffee table whenever we find the perfect one). But today I just thought I’d share a simple little project that I recently did to add to the room make-over: an easy DIY tray for the coffee table!

I got this wooden tray from Goodwill for $5 and knew immediately it had the perfect potential for what I wanted. While a lot of places have already-cute trays (like Target and Home Goods) they were always $15 – $20 and I didn’t see the need to pay that. So when I scored this find it was perfect! I then bought two pieces of scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby which was less than $2, total. The only other supplies you’ll need are Mod Podge or, in my case since I already had it, Gel Medium, and a paint color of your choice. I used left over paint from all of the trim in the living room and started by painting the frame of the tray with two coats. Then I trimmed the paper down to size, did a thick layer of the gel in the bottom of the tray, carefully placed the paper and smoothed it out. Then I applied two top layers (letting it dry in between) to seal the paper and make it water proof. Because I used the glossy gel that I had, when the light hits it you can see some of the brush strokes. But that really doesn’t bother me since it’s subtle, and since it was such an easy and cheap project. And there you have it! Easy peasy.

We all know remote controls are not cute at all. But they’re frequently in use and need to be easily gotten to, so I decided to just embrace that and I figured by having a cute tray to put them on, it will distract from their inherent ugliness. ;)

The cute coasters were purchased on clearance from Anthro and the candles were also clearance from Anthro and Home Goods. I’m really just loving how cozy and colorful this room is, now, and I can’t wait to share all of it once we get the finishing touches. Which could be who-knows-how-long….but hopefully not THAT far in the future. ;)

Yay for successful DIY projects! Have you done any recently that you loved the results of?