I'm not a fan of moose.

And neither is Martha Stewart, it seems. At least that's why I suppose she put rocks in her boot tray...oh, wait, maybe it was because the rocks kick ass as a way to get the shoes to dry out overnight?

Oh, wait...Martha probably does not say "kick ass." Well, whatever. I copied her idea last year in a kind of low-budget way (plastic boot tray from Target), and it worked. Really well. So this year I went on the hunt for a nice long metal tray in white. 

Nope. Nada. 

So I did the next best thing - I ordered the cheapest metal tray they had on Amazon.com. Moose and all. And I painted it.

Pretty fancy, right? Totally Martha. Until you get to the part where I stood in the garage and primed and painted the thing. She probably has a spray booth. Wait, no...a spray staff. But, anyway, it was not a big deal. The nice neighbor Nellie did comment on how I was standing in a haze of paint fumes at one point. But I simply took that as cue to move the car a little farther away from the garage door. 

Priorities.

Anyway, the how-to:

• Purchase ugly boot tray.
• Lay it out on some paper or the grass, or wherever you are okay with a collection of paint fumes and perhaps some paint spillage.

• Spray on a nice coat of primer. Note the instructions on the primer. Mine told me to put the real coat of paint on something like 20 minutes after the primer. I had not expected to be on such a tight time frame, so plan accordingly.

• Put 3-4 coats of spray paint on. All coats should be light. Do not attempt to get full coverage on your first coat. Take it slow, or the fumes will overtake you. And you will have a gloppy mess, btw.
• Pop this puppy in your house and fill it with rocks. 
• Oh, and another note, since it's metal, and the rocks make it heavy, put some of those foam pads underneath it to make it easy to slide. You cannot easily pick it up once it's full of rocks!*

 *Note, sine I needed to be able to slide my tray away from the sun room door on occasion, I actually sat it on 4 Flor tile samples, thereby making it the same height off the floor as the rug, so it slides over to the rug and onto the rug with not so much as a stone disturbed. It's the little things like this that keep me up at night...

Comments

[Molly @thewaffler]

I am 100% stealing this idea. My garage entrance mudroom makes me crazy. Also love those Flor tiles. How are they at hiding dirt?

[Holiday]

Flor tiles have held up well for 3 years! I spot clean them now and then, but so far, so good!