DIY Farmhouse Style Wood Tea Party Tray

DIY Farmhouse Style Wood Tea Party Tray using your leftover wood stash. Add vintage handles and you have a cottage core centerpiece to style.

DIY Farmhouse Style Wood Tea Party Tray

WHAT YOU NEED:

3 pieces of 3/4″ x 4″ x 18″ rustic looking wood. We had shiplap left over from a project that was perfect for this. All we did was cut the “lap” off of the end that would show to make all the edges straight.
2 pieces of 3/4″ x 3″ x 16″ rustic trim wood. Which we also had on hand from the same project.
Table saw; cut off saw; nail gun (or your dad’s old hammer), finish nails; and/or drill, drill bits, screws; painters tape and pencil.
Found or new drawer pulls.
A tea party where you are the decor person. This upcycled wood cottage core tray was the table centerpiece. My lovely gifted teapots and tiny vintage creamer and sugar bowl with a little gold teaspoon with… yes!… a tiny gold teapot on the handle! were on the tray, above the doilies you see in the photo. (I didn’t get a photo with the teapots.) Each place setting had a white paper doily with a tussie mussie bouquet on it matching the pictured one, only the flowers were fresh and live. This is one I saved and let dry. Isn’t it still amazing after more than a month?

The best part?

You can use this wooden tray after the tea party, for anything you want a wooden tray to do. Or you can gift it to the birthday girl that the tea party is for, which is what I was going to do until I found out that we were all going in on an instant pot for her.

That made me the proud owner of my first handmade upcycled wood Tea Party Tray.

wood-tea-party-tray-handle-kimenink — On the right you can see the drawer pull we upcycled for handles on our tray.

wood-tea-party-tray-assembly-kimenink — You can see the assembly in this picture: on the left edge a little of the shiplap joint shows. We should have oiled the raw edge cuts, but they actually don’t contrast as much as they appear here.

Assemble the Tea Party Tray

WHAT YOU DO:

Line up the three large pieces of upcycled shiplap. With the table saw, cut the “lap” off the last piece to make it straight.
Put this piece back in line, then place the 3″ x 14″ trim pieces across the three boards at each end of the shiplap about 1″ from the ends.
Nail the trim pieces onto the shiplap. Use 3 nails for each piece of trim, one into each board. This is to hold it into place so you can flip it over and use the drill to drill holes for the screws. IMPORTANT: Make sure your nails and screws are long enough to hold it all together, but not so long they’ll poke through. If you plan to only nail it and not use screws, use more nails in a two by two pattern across and down the trim, four nails to each board.
Flip the tray back over with right side up. Mark the holes for the drawer pulls: Find the center of each piece of trim. Place painters tape over the drilling spots. Use a drill bit that is slightly smaller than the screw for the drawer pull and drill all the way through.
Flip the tray over, and with a drill bit the size of the end of the drawer pull screw, drill a shallow hole to counter-sink the screw. This way the tea party tray will be nice and flat on the bottom, with less chance of scratching any surfaces you place it on.
Attach the drawer pulls.
You’re done, unless you want to add little silicone feet to the bottom for added surface protection.

monogrammed farmhouse tray via prettyhandygirl — Our inspo for the farmhouse style tea party tray. Via prettyhandygirl.com.

Personalize Your DIY Upcycled Wood Tray

If you want to take your tray a step further and personalize it, here is a great tutorial on how to do that.

Not everyone has a Cricut or Silhouette to cut the initial, so here is an idea to make it your own using a round paint brush and black paint. The 2 oz bottles of paint from any craft store are good for this project.

Find a plate the size of the circle you want for the tea party tray and draw a pencil line all around it.
Put a puddle of black paint in a paper plate. Dip a size 4 or 6 round artists brush into water and pat it dry-ish on paper towel. Dip into the paint, rolling the brush into a nice tip of black.
Paint a line on top of your pencil circle. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
Paint a simple leaf wreath around the circle: Dip and roll the brush for each leaf. Begin anywhere, and place leaves all around the circle. Place the brush down first at the top of the leaf, furthest from the line, then lift and pull a tip toward the line. Don’t pull all the way to the line. Paint leaves both inside and outside the circle line.
Rinse and dry your brush every few leaves to get good results.
Use your computer to find a font you like, then enlarge the letter to fit into the circle on the tray. Print it out, and cut around the edges. Tape it to the tray, and trace around the letter.
With your dip and roll method, use the tip of the brush to outline the letter. Then fill in between the lines with solid color. Black in this case, but you could use any color you wish.

Style the Wood Tea Party Tray

Here are a few ideas for styling your Tea Party Tray. When not in service at a tea party, it makes great kitchen decor or a table centerpiece. Photos are from Wayfair.com. These trays all have sides, but most would work for a flat tray, also.