But first, Coffee Chalk Paint Tray

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I’ve been dreaming of making my own cute little coffee tray for a few months now.  I never knew exactly how I wanted to do it or what it would look like, until a few weeks ago.  After I finally decided on the theme I wanted for my house, the vision for my tray slowly started to come together.  And it all started with a crazy idea to cover an old vase with chalk paint.

To be honest I never liked coffee.  I always thought it was disgusting, and it took me a very long time to acquire a taste for it.  Even now I can’t drink anything that’s too strong and I must have a “healthy” amount of sugar and cream in it to even make my coffee drinkable.  But, the stuff gives me the jolt I need in the morning so I guess I can deal with it.

This tray was so simple and it makes me wonder why I always tend to put these types of projects on the back burner.  They always tend to be so much easier to do than what I originally thought!

Materials for the tray

• Unfinished wooden tray, I purchased mine at Michael’s
• folkArt Home Decor Chalk Paint, Parisian Grey
• ArtMinds Chalk Paint, Simply White
• folkArt Home Decor Wax, White
• Small paintbrush
• Stencil brush
• Vinyl (any color will do)
• But first, Coffee SVG file (you need to own a Silhouette cutting machine to be able to use this file!)

1. Cover your tray with your base color chalk paint.  Leave it to dry for about two hours before touching it again.
2. Cut the SVG file out with your Silhouette machine, weed the letters and the coffee cup, lay contact paper on top of the stencil, and then remove the backing.  Then place the stencil on your tray.
3. Using the white chalk paint, lightly coat the stencil and then let it sit for about fifteen or twenty minutes.  Add another coat if desired (unless you want the writing to be very light) and wait about ten minutes before peeling up the stencil.  If you notice bleeding of any kind at this point don’t worry about it!  We’ll fix it!
4. Using a very small paint brush go back over the letters with the chalk paint to fix any bleeding or to darken up any letters that may seem too light.  I also had to draw the line around the top of the coffee cup during this process!
5. I let the tray sit overnight and then put on a coating of protective wax the next morning.
6. After adding the layer of wax I set the tray aside for 24 hours before pulling it out to use it.

Not only does the saying make me smile every time I see it, but I also love that I can corral everything I use for my morning cup in one place.  Not only is it practical but it’s pretty cute too!  And who doesn’t love having cute things around?

Do you have a coffee station in your home?  How do you take your morning cup of joe?