Beauty in a Wooden Tray

 

On a recent trip to Goodwill, I found a wooden tray; stained brown.  It was a sturdy little tray and I knew I could find a place for it, even though I wasn’t wild about the color.

I set it outside on the back porch, on a table that sits between a couple of chairs.  It helped fill in the space underneath an old painted pot of flowers I had there, and made the area look a little more layered and interesting. 

 

 

I resisted the urge to immediately get out my paintbrush and paint it, wanting to see if I would end up liking it fine just as it was.  And so it sat there patiently for several weeks.  

 

But something about it seemed a bit lackluster – as though I wasn’t helping it live up to its potential in life. 

 

 

It needed something.

 

 

After thinking about it, I remembered I still had some blue paint leftover from the dumpster dresser.

I lightly brushed it on, without priming, trying to skim over the stained wood, without completely covering it up.  I wanted it to look old and softly worn.  When I finished, it looked pretty enough, but it just didn’t seem to have any texture.  So since I was priming a shelf Glenn had just made for the boys’ room, I went ahead and dry brushed some of the primer over the blue paint.  Just enough to make it look as though the white was coming from underneath the blue. 

 

 

Now I love it. 

 

Not only does it have a purpose in life – it’s holding beautiful flowers and some special rocks picked up on our family walks – but it looks sweet as well.

 

 

 

It was so fast and easy, I find myself looking around at some of the other functional things I’m using, to see how they might be beautified. 

Sometimes it doesn’t take much at all; just a little imagination.