Before and After: Breakfast Tray to Laptop Desk

I found this little breakfast tray in my decluttering. It had belonged to my grandmother so I didn’t want to get rid of it. But I don’t like eating in bed so I certainly wasn’t going to use it for its intended purpose.

So I decided to repurpose it into a tray for my laptop.


First I primed it with Kilz spray primer. Then I went thru my newly cleaned up paint shelf to see what color I’d like to use. I had some Rustoleum Metallic Black paint I’d used in some other projects. I liked the way it has that sparkle to it, so that is what I picked to use.

To do the tray I found a piece of fabric at Hobby Lobby and cut it to size. From there I Mod Podged it as normal, using 2 coats on the top.

When everything was dry, I sprayed it with 5 coats of satin poly to protect it from the bumps it will get in use.


I am really pleased with how this ‘transformation’ turned out!