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Lilies and Life - Interior Decorating | Blog | Home Decor | DIY

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  • DIY & Home Decor
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DIY Wooden Tray

in DIY & Home Decor on 08/23/20

Now that summer is almost over… I finally got around to making a wooden tray that I plan to use to bring food and dinnerware out to our patio! Better late than never I guess ha! In this post I give you my detailed tutorial on how to make this beauty! It’s easier than it looks 🙂

DIY Wooden Tray full tutorial.  Tray home decor ideas for patio, living room or kitchen

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

Supplies

  • Large piece of plywood (mine is 12″x24″)
  • Strips of pine wood (mine are 2″x3′
  • Gorilla Wood Glue
  • Clamps
  • Miter Saw
  • Table Saw
  • Stain (I used Minwax Provincial)
  • Paint (semi gloss is probably best)
  • Polyurethane
  • Hardware pulls
  • Drill & Drill Bits

Step 1: Determine the size of your tray

I wanted my utensil carrier to fit on the tray so I needed my tray to be 12″x24″. You can really choose any size you want!

Step 2: Sand all of your wood

Make sure to sand the base of the tray along with the strips of pine. Prep work makes the dream work 😉

Step 3: Start assembly

With the design I chose I needed to start with the five long strips down the middle of the tray. When cutting the pine pieces with your miter saw to fit on the base, make sure you leave room so that the entire base is covered. Leave some of the pine pieces sticking out over the base (we will cut these off later!)

My design vision

Glue each piece in place and secure with clamps. Allow for 24 hours to dry!

Step 4: Finish assembly

Using the same technique you did in step 3, start adding the side designs to the base. Glue the side pieces in place, clamp them and let dry for 24 hours.

Step 5: Cut the off the extras

Using a table saw to (or if you have a really steady hand a jig or circular saw) rip the little extra edge pieces off of the base. Thank dad 🙂

Step 6: The fun part! Staining and painting!

I decided to stain the entire tray except the give long middle strips. So sanded the entire tray down, wiped the dust of and taped off the pieces I did not want to stain.

I then taped off the stained sections and painted the five strips with 2 coats of paint.

Step 7: Cut outside edge pieces

Measuring the outside edges of the tray, cut four edge pieces to frame the tray with your miter saw. Stain them!

Step 8: Secure edges to base

Use your nail gun and glue to secure the outside edges to the base of the tray.

Step 9: Seal the Tray

Sealing the entire tray with polyurethane will preserve the tray and protect it from water spills.

Step 10: Add the handles

Find the center of end edges of the tray and then determine where to drill the holes for the hardware pulls. Using a drill and drill bits secure the pulls onto the tray

I always create a little template when adding pulls to anything!

Tah Dah!! So excited about this tray and how helpful it will be for our fall patio fun!

DIY Wooden Tray full tutorial.  Tray home decor ideas for patio, living room or kitchen
DIY Wooden Tray full tutorial.  Tray home decor ideas for patio, living room or kitchen
DIY Wooden Tray full tutorial.  Tray home decor ideas for patio, living room or kitchen

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1 Comment

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Comments

  1. Holly says

    09/04/2020 at 4:22 PM

    That looks great!

    Reply

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Hi, I’m Emily! I’m an Interior designer, decorator and blogger.  I help overwhelmed homeowners and DIYers bring timeless design and function into their home so they can love their space and the life they are building within it!  Thank you for visiting 🙂

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I call this the "Nail Hole Filling Crawl" 😂 T I call this the "Nail Hole Filling Crawl" 😂 

Today my Home Improvement Challenge is all about nail holes. Over the course of a few years, we have switched out ALL of our wood stained trim to white trim.  This led to the filling in of LOTS of nail holes.  If you know... you know...😩

(Swipe for a before pic of this space➡️)

I have asked Jeremy from @restorationvalley to give us some tips on how to fill those pesky nail holes. Want to watch his entire video? Join the challenge via the link in my bio!

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#homeandliving #hgtvdesign #homebunch
First project of my Home Improvement Challenge DON First project of my Home Improvement Challenge DONE!

It probably isn't very noticeable to a lot  of people but it was bugging the crap out of me😩

-Filled in a few nail holes on the trim around the window
-Sanded
-Fresh coat of paint!

It's looking fresh! 

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Is your husband not aboard for my Home Improvement Is your husband not aboard for my Home Improvement Challenge?  Here are a few tips to get him excited:

1. Buy him beer🍺
2. Let him choose the order in which you do the projects👍
3. Practice using his love language 😉
4. Buy him more beer🤣

(Shout-out to my husband who hates taking photos and agreed to this😜)

My Home Improvement Challenge starts TODAY!!🎉 Still want to join?? Join the challenge by clicking the link in my bio!

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The private Facebook group is LIVE. Search for "Em The private Facebook group is LIVE. Search for "Emily's Home Improvement Challenge" and request to join or DM and I can add you😊

Here we go💪💪

Are any of these projects on your To Do list:

-Patching that sheetrock hole
-Filling in nail holes (this is definitely on mine!)
-Painting
-Putting together a piece of furniture
-Caulking that crack
-Touching up with paint
-Hang the curtain rod
-Install the new light fixture (BYE BYE BOOK LIGHTS?! :))
-Landscaping project
-Planting grass

This list could go on FOREVER but if you have a project you have been avoiding because it's small or annoying, join my new #HomeImprovementChallenge starting April 12th!!

Use my Room Task Tracker PDF to organize all your projects!

#DIYprojects
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