Coffee Table Tray with Drawer {Lowes Creative Idea}

I am so excited about this project.  This tray is perfect for a coffee table because it has a little drawer to hide things like magazines and remote controls.  Another idea is to put school supplies in it for a homework station or have it on a kitchen table and store things like extra silverware and napkins.  It is rather heavy so it won’t really work for a serving tray.  But it is nice to have where it will stay in place and be able to serve as some hiding place organization.

This is also a prefect scrap buster project.  If you create DIY wood stuff like I do -a nice little stash of wood pieces are left behind.  I actually had all the wood in my scrap bins so the only expense was the cabinet pulls.  However, if you don’t have scraps all supplies (1”x3”, 1”x 2”, 1”x6” and plywood) can be purchased at Lowes and were made with all stock wood pieces.

 

I partnered with Rayan from The Design Confidential on this project.  I told her what I wanted and she designed it and showed me how it was done.  For the full plans click here to learn how to make a coffee table tray with drawer.

In addition to the supplies Rayan listed I used some Minwax stain with Charcoal Gray mixed in.  It was the first time I tried a colored stain.  Even with pre-wood conditioner (put this on the bare wood first) it seemed splotchy and not like a stain at all – probably because Lowes added pigment to it which made it more paint-like than stain-like.

So I decided to sand some of it down and put a Minwax Special Walnut over the top of it.  It didn’t darken the colored stain but on the places where I sanded it darkened and made it look much better.

 

I then followed that with two coats of a wipe-on poly (sanding between coats) and it was done.  On the right you can see the inside of the drawer that has just the colored stain on it.

I purchased some pulls from Lowes and drilled them in place. (Brainerd Copper Highlights Bar, and Gatehouse Aged Bronze Pull).

It kind of looks, grayish, blueish, brownish.  It is a weird color but I kind of like it.  I wanted to do something other than paint or stain which is why I opted for this finish.  What do you think?

I love how it looks like a vintage crate with the space between the drawer and the top piece.  However, if you wanted to cut a drawer front to have no space between that and the top 1” x 2” you could certainly do that.

 

 

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Disclaimer:  As part of the Lowes Creative Ideas Creators & Influencers I am challenged each month with a project from Lowes.  They compensate me for my time with gift cards to Lowes.