Or:  HOW TO F*CK UP A TRAY IN 3 EASY STEPS.

As this is a blog that I intend to share both successes and failures, it’s time for a failure post.  Ya know, those times when all your intentions are pure, when you think you have followed every step to the letter and yet, well… things just don’t go as planned.

I started with this tray which you may recognise from this post and this one.  It had been hanging out on my console table minding it’s own business before I decided to pounce.  Poor thing had no idea what was coming.

I actually bought both W and I a set of these when we were dating and in the throes of new romance and doing a lot of breakfast-in-bed / all-day-under-the-duvet weekends together.  Ahhh, those were the days.  Since then, they’ve been sat on the top of our kitchen cupboards collecting dust. [Insert inappropriate joke about relationships and gathering dust here] (Just joking baby! Love you! Even if we don’t do breakfast in bed anymore… *cough*)

I started by cleaning the tray and wiping it down with white spirits and then, because the wood is unfinished with a bit of texture, I just wacked on Dulux Primer & Undercoat, and then, a few hours later, Dulux Satinwood Pure Brilliant White for Wood, which just so happens to be what I used to paint the sideboard.

After those two coats and waiting a full 48 hours for the paint to completely dry, the tray looked like this.  It was actually rather lovely and I toyed with just leaving it like that but nooooooo.  I had to press on.  (Stupid, stupid girl.)

Now, I SPECIALLY PURCHASED ‘Premium Masking Tape’ from Homebase which says on the label (and I quote): “A superior quality masking tape which is both easy to apply and remove, giving a professional finish with clean sharp edges and no residue”.  Yeah you can see where this is going.

The taping went fine and I started to get quite excited about the final results.

Two coats of Crown Indulgence ‘Little Black Dress’ (2 hours between coats to dry) and about 10 minutes after the second coat (so as not to disturb the paint of course), I removed my tape…

And this, my darlings, is what I was left with.

Sorry, did you need a closer look?

Yeah, I know.

That tape was complete and utter bollocks.  Considering I did a very similar paint project on my chevron-patterned shoe stands with regular old masking tape and it came out damn near perfect, I didn’t think for one minute that this tape would be so utterly shite.

I’ll be honest, I’ve stuck it under my bottles and from far away, you can’t really tell the lines are so bad or that the paint has peeled off.  Pretty much.

Closer inspection reveals otherwise.

However, if you dim the lights and squint your eyes and walk into the room backwards, you can’t even see it!

My only consolation is that I have 3 more trays just like it on the top of the kitchen cupboards.  Take two coming soon…

Had any epic fails recently?  Please share, I need to feel better about myself.

All images my own.


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