Once a fruit crate, now a decorative coffee table tray!

Up-cycling is one of my favorite things to do, and so when a friend handed over a couple of things that otherwise would have reached the community trash bins, I was more than excited to take them.

It’s a constant battle in me between “Oh this is going to support my hoarder personality” vs “Oh I could make something useful out of this one!” . So once in a while, I let the latter feeling win.

So one of the things that came home with me last December was this fruit crate, that sat in my garage gathering some dust, until I found some inspiration through my holiday travels to give it a new look.

We were fortunate enough travel to the Amazon rainforest during the Christmas holidays, and as you can imagine, it was quite the impressionable experience for someone like me, who lives and dreams in color!

I, having spent my childhood and a part of my adulthood in India, have had a taste of the wildlife diversity that exists in tropical rainforests, but a few days in the heart of '“the lungs of the planet” were absolutely a visual delight, that I will carry with me for a long time to come.

So one fine day, I picked up the crate and dug out some chalk paint that was part of a previous passion project( find it here : Up-cycled dresser) and started painting away, enjoying the dopamine that it gave me from emptying the paint bottle after a year!

For the main design, which was inspired by a family of the tropical flower, bird of paradise, I used some acrylic colors that are part of my regular art supplies. I couldn’t shake off a very pretty flower I had seen in the forest, which I also remember seeing in India where I grew up. So obviously, that flower had to be the show stopper.

For the handles of the tray, I did a quick run to the nearest Micheals store and picked up some wired rope. I had half a mind to color them to go with the theme, but decided against it to keep the attention where it should be. I picked up my drill, drilled a quick couple of holes, and used superglue to secure the knot ends in place. Finally, I sealed it with matte varnish because what’s a product if it’s not functional? and there, I had a brand new decorative tray ready to go with my coffee table.

Here are some pictures of the finished crate-tray and I hope it fuels your up-cycling dreams as much as it did mine!