I am at fault for paying more attention to the details and finishing touches in my guest bedroom than I do in my own master bedroom. It’s partly my selfless side coming thru that wants my guests to feel comfortable and enjoy their stay more than I care about my own comfort, and it’s partly my vain side that wants to put my best foot forward in the rooms that my guests will actually see (I can always keep visitors out of the master!). I say all of this because I am suddenly finding it amusing that I created this beautiful DIY Victorian Gothic Bed Tray for my guest bedroom, and not for myself!
The entire time I have worked on this piece, I have had the thought in my head of how nice it would be to have a special piece like this in a guest bedroom. On one hand it’s a bit of a conversation piece, and I always love having small elements of surprise in every room of the house. On the other hand, a bed tray by nature really is a luxury… talk about pampering your guest! I can just see it now… they’ll never want to get out of bed, and I’ll be serving them breakfast with their newspaper. Maybe that’s not such a great plan after all!! But now that the tray is complete, I am thinking it may be time to start pampering myself!! So whether you plan to spoil your guests or pamper yourself… this Bed Tray is a great project!
I found the original tray table at a thrift store. It needed some cleaning up, but it had great bones. It was solid wood, and had great side storage, and an easel feature, so it doubles as a desk. I didn’t have much of a plan for it at first, so like way too many of the things I pick up at thrift stores.. it went into my garage to get buried under a pile of other things that lay waiting to be brought back to life. I hate to admit, I forgot about it. Until recently.
You’ve gotta love when something comes back into your life at just the right time. Someone very close to me was looking for a way to comfortably eat meals while sitting in a recliner chair in their bedroom. My forgotten tray table came to mind! After some digging, I pulled it from the jaws of my garage. I was so excited it was finally going to be put to use. Unfortunately, it was too tall to be stored under the bed, and despite my urging that it would look great sitting on the end of the bed… it did not find a home in that room. I was reluctant to put the poor piece back in my garage, so it sat in my foyer for several days. Everyday I passed by it thinking, man that really would’ve been perfect in a bedroom, and then it hit me… That tray deserved to be made over for my guest bedroom!
I am always looking for new methods to create image transfers, so this tray table was an excellent candidate…. I choose to print images onto tissue paper, and then transfer the tissue onto the tray. I just needed to find the perfect image, or images. Please note.. the images I used in this project are not my own. I searched and searched through image websites, and google images until I came across the Arsenic Waltz image, a sketch from the 1800s, courtesy Wellcome Library. The second I saw it, I knew it was the one I wanted to use. Victorian Skeletons!?!? What’s better than that!! Next, I simply had to find layering images. I ended up using Gothic Arches from The Graphics Fairy, and a blank banner I found on Google Images, in which I typed The Arsenic Waltz. For this project you can work with any images that are printable.
Here’s what I used and how I made the Bed Tray:
- Wooden Bed Tray / Lap Desk- Here’s one
VERY similar to the one I found.
- Painters Tape
- Black Paint
- Aged Gray Chalk Paint
- Paint Brushes
- Printable Images
- White Tissue Paper
- Printer Paper
- tape
- Printer
- Liquitex Matte Gel
- Sand paper
- Script Rubber Stamp
- Black Stamp Ink
- Polycrylic Spray
- DecoArt Triple Thick Gloss Glaze
VERY similar to the one I found.
Clean and Sand the Bed Table as needed.
Tape off the area where you want to place your images.
Paint the remainder of the tray black.
Once dry, reverse the tape, and paint the desk area light grey or white. You’ll want to choose a light enough color to be able to see the image being transferred.
Fold the tissue paper around a piece of print paper, and wrap like a present. The tissue needs to be tightly snug around the 4 sides of the paper, and all folded edges should be taped down. You don’t want anything to get caught in your printer.
Print each of your images onto the flat side of the tissue, and allow the ink to dry
I chose to tear the edges around the image. I left more tissue paper on the 1st image, and then tore closer to the image on the top layers. You can certainly use a scissor to cut each image out, but I liked the rawness of a torn edge. Especially because this transfer is not meant to be exactly perfect. There should be some distress to it.
Apply a heavy coat of Liquitex to the area of the tray where you plan to secure your image
Gently lay the tissue onto the tray. You basically get one shot at this. Tissue paper will be thin and wet once it touches the tray, and will very easily tear if you try to reposition it.
Very carefully, smooth the image out. I used my finger for this. You may end up with a few minor unavoidable wrinkles. These don’t bother me… I feel imperfections add to the look.
Allow the tissue to dry completely.
Once dry, use a wet finger to gently rub off any excess tissue paper. The tissue paper will come off when wet so be careful not to rub away any of the printed image.
Once the excess is removed, use your sanding block to smooth the edges.
Begin layering your images. Like I said before, for the layering images, try to trim or tear the tissue as closely around the image as you can. The tissue will leave a slightly different color, and you wouldn’t want to unnecessarily cover up your base images.
Apply another coat of Liquitex , and adhere the next image. Allow to dry and repeat as needed.
Once I had my images in place, I still had some space I wanted to fill. To add more dimension, I chose to add stamped images.
I used a large stamp block of a script, but I didn’t want the script on the tray to look so square, so I applied the stamp ink to the stamp on some but not all of the surface. I also used a paper towel to remove some of the stamp ink in random places along the 4 sides. I applied the ink slightly different every time I used my stamp.
Then I simply pressed the stamp onto the surface of my tray in a few areas until I was pleased with the overall coverage.
The final step is to seal the image. After all, if anyone plans on using the top of the tray to eat, read, or work, you’ll want to make sure the image won’t get damaged or scratch off. First, I use a polycrylic spray. I taped the tray off so I only had to spray the image block, but you can certainly spray the entire piece. Just be sure to actually spray the entire tray, because the polycrylic leaves a slightly different finish.
Allow to dry and repeat spray 2-3 times.
Once the polycrylic is dry, brush on a coat of gloss glaze. This stuff really secures a finish. The reason I use the polycrylic first is because the gloss glaze may cause the ink from the stamp to bleed. The polycrylic effectively seals in the ink, and prevents the bleed.
Now you’re ready to pamper that guest… or better yet – you enjoy breakfast in bed, or perhaps have a stylish sick day, or even work from home in the comfort of your pillows!
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The images used in this project were obtained from online image searches. They have been used for personal use only, and are included here as a part of the tutorial on how to transfer an image.
Ugh, can I just move into your guest room and have breakfast in bed every morning on this?!? You are seriously too talented for words. You need to come to my neck of the woods and help me. I’m moving into a new apartment in the next few months and I would love to have you help me design the place from the floor boards up.
🙂
My guest room is all ready for you!! And I would totally come up your way…. that would be fun to finally meet!… Talk about the brainstorming we could do!!
How have I not seen this before?! Absolutely adore it, my love. I have a white bed tray that never gets used. I feel another addition to the ever-growing project list coming on 😉