What does $1 buy you?

A really cute tray for your coffee table, that's what!

My name is Courtney and every Saturday morning starts the exact same way: My BFF texts me (not before 9:00 though--she's not allowed to wake me from my slumber before then), I throw on a t-shirt and some running shorts, put my hair in a messy pony, and we set out to find some treasures (after we make a pit stop at Starbucks).

The best part is that we never know what we're going to find--if we even find anything at all. But there's always the potential to find a hidden treasure. Or that special edition of Mall Madness worth lots of money that we always make sure to look for.

On this particular day, we'd struck out. No treasures to be found! We were on our way out and as I walked by I spotted this tray, I stopped and went back. "I could spray paint this and it'd be really cute. It's only $1," I told BFF.

Most conversations that involve me buying something at the thrift store begin with, "I could spray paint this." Oooooh, spray paint.

So I took my little tray to the check out, handed over my $1.09, and took her home with me.

I have a mustard yellow theme going on in my living room, so I wanted the tray to coordinate with that. I didn't want to spend a lot of time on this project, so I took a few shortcuts. I didn't sand it or prime it--instead, to begin I sprayed a thin coat of white spray paint over the flower design to cover it up. I then used a Valspar paint sample and a foam paint brush and went to town. It required two coats and it's certainly not perfect, but it's perfect enough for me.

I knew I wanted to add some visual interest by lining the tray with paper, so I perused the scrapbook section of Micahel's and found this cut out pattern piece of paper--perfect for my tray! I trimmed it up a bit, spread a thin layer of Mod Podge over the tray, and smoothed the paper down.

  Ta-da! The cutest, homemade tray on the block!

 What treasures are you finding? Instagram your finds with #findingtreasures