DIY Thrifted Flag Tray

On another one of my thrifting trips to Second Chance Thrift Store, which seems to be daily lately. I found this super cute little tray, it was plain and boring but I had an idea! Right before I stopped at the thrift store I was at Ocean State Job Lots (a discount store here on the East Coast) and I found these Patriotic paper placemats, it had 4 different Patriotic designs. I had never even heard of such a thing, how did I not know about paper placemats?! They are so fun and can be used for so many things! Did you know about them? I knew that I wanted to add one of these placemats to my thrifted tray! Let’s get started on this DIY thrifted flag tray!

Supplies:

Wooden Tray (Thrifted)

Paper Placemats

Imperial Red Chalk Paint (Plaid)

Brown Wax (Plaid)

Mod Podge

Before we get started I did find some other paper placemats on Amazon

You can find them here using my referral links.

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First, remove handles and paint the whole tray with the Imperial red chalk paint. I did 1 coat of paint, I wanted some of the original wood to show through.

Second, I took the flag placemat and and tore it down to the size of the tray. If you use a thin paint brush with some water and wet the paper it makes it easier to tear.

Third, I covered the tray with Mod Podge, waited for it to dry. Once it was dry I laid my flag over it and used wax paper and an iron and attached it to the tray. The heat from the iron reactivates the Mod Podge and you get less wrinkles. It works really well on projects such as this.

Fourth, I took a sanding sponge and sanded around the edges of the whole tray and even lightly sanded over the flag. It gave it an aged look. Then I took the brown wax and a rag and wiped the wax all over the flag and tray, wiping off the excess as I went along. If you want lighter use less wax, darker use more wax. If you want to keep the flag s it was skip the wax step altogether.