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DIY home decor: This bathroom tray looks high end but costs less than $5 to make

We adore this inexpensive bathroom tray and how easy it is to replicate

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Everyone loves a good do-it-yourself project, especially when it saves you a ton of money and looks like it was bought at a high-end store. You don’t have to be an expert builder or even that educated in DIY in general with all of the millions of YouTube and TikTok videos done by non-experts that are willing to walk us all through the steps to put something together. This DIY bathroom tray from TikToker “woman.of.gold” is both of those, costing less than $5 and giving that high-end vibe that everyone wants in a bathroom.

How to pull it off

Woman.of.gold wrote that the “plastic plate was only £1.49” and “the tea light holders only 50p each” so the total cost was £3.49 (approximately $4.34) since she already had the paint and baking soda at home. (And even if you don’t have those supplies, a little paint and baking soda won’t add too much to your total cost.

@woman.of.gold

Im really proud of this one! It looks so expensive and the plastic plate was only £1.49 and the tealight holders 50p each so total cost is £3.49 (already had the paint and baking soda at home) #diy #homedecor #diytray

♬ Best of Beautiful – JAYBeatz

In the video, you can see her gluing four upside-down tea light holders onto a plastic tray, ones you can find in any home decor store for cheap. Then, using books, she lets the holders and tray set and dry. Once all is set, she spraypaints the entire piece in a gorgeous ivory color. She uses a baking soda paste to antique the finish and, once dry, turns it over to show a beautiful bathroom tray that you can put candles, lotions, soaps, and your finest perfumes on. This would look stunning in a primary bathroom next to a bathtub or in a guest bathroom holding everything your family and friends need to get ready in your home.

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Other uses

There are endless possibilities that you could find to use to make a similar tray, and even one that is larger that could be used on a coffee table in a living room. You might need to support a larger tray with two more tea light holders in the middle, but using a plastic serving tray would give more room to place books, candles, or even picture frames. The tray offers a depth and character that you wouldn’t get just from a painted tray alone, and it allows varying heights on a table or countertop.

There are so many similar videos on TikTok showing viewers everything from how to restore a car to refinishing a piece of antique furniture to easy and inexpensive decor updates you can make that offer a high-end look for a fraction of the cost of buying it in a store. You can use the search bar at the top of the app to narrow down what you are looking for or, on sites like Reddit, search for a subReddit page like r/HomeImprovement to get a wealth of information at your fingertips. Happy DIY’ing!

Julie Scagell
Julie Scagell
Former Author
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