Tray table before & almost after

So I finally decided to just go ahead and write this post because it's very very late and, even more embarassing, I haven't quite finished the project.

Those have got to be two good reasons, yes?

Last June (yikes!), we went to the famous Emmaüs sale in Paris (read the whole story here) and bought a €10 tray table that looked like this:

Then I went over to Wallpaperdirect and ordered a few samples for a few Euros (more info here).

6 months later, I finally got round to doing something about the guilt I felt everytime I walked past that sad little table folded up in the hallway.

It's far from perfect because I ended up using only three of the samples and there wasn't really enough to go around and I had to cut little slivers of paper and stick them here and there to cover up my shoddy work.

But let's just pretend I never said that and that you didn't notice. We used the table loads over Christmas for our snack fuelled Miranda-thons but it doesn't go in the living room at all colour-wise. I was originally planning on selling it as we really didn't need it, so I just went with random colours that I liked for once. The other day I got a bit sick of seing it in the living room and had a mad weekend switcheroo session that involved 3 lamps and 2 tables.

This is what I ended up with: a bigger nightstand in the guest room!

It all looks very yellow in these pics, but really it's nice and cosy and just right. Now all I need to do is get a pane of glass cut to fit over the wallpaper for protection. Let's see how long it takes... I already tried a DIY shop down the road but they stopped cutting glass 10 years ago (maybe update your website to save people a bit of time??) so who knows where I'll go or how long it will take. 

In the meantime we're trying to be careful not to damage the paper. The paint is already a little scratched in places and it really needs another (4th!!) coat and a coat of varnish... can you tell I can't be bothered?

So there you have it: undeniable proof that I'm not some kind of perfectionist maniac. And that I have a slightly pointless obsession with tray tables.