Serving Tray

It was my mom's birthday coming up and I was a little stumped about what to get her. Then I remembered seeing how some people had been using picture frames to create serving trays. So I went on a hunt to gather the supplies to make her a serving tray. 

The first thing you need is a sturdy picture frame that is preferably wooden. A picture frame, you think, not hard to find at all. And that's true, there are many frames out there, but ones that are a suitable size for a tray and are wooden are much harder to find. I used this project as a way to explore some of the local thrift stores that I haven't been to, or don't frequent often. The first place I looked had some good options, but the woman then said that she had set the frames aside for herself and the place wasn't really a thrift store, just a sorting facility for a thrift store. I tried two more places striking out, then I found this frame. It was perfect. It was the correct size, it had a wooden frame, it had a wide enough frame to add handles to, and it was already white. Bonus. 

After obtaining the frame I then had to purchase handles for the tray. This, too, was more challenging than I had anticipated. While the big box hardware stores have many different handle options, they didn't have many that I felt were pretty enough. I was ideally looking for one that had glass on it, and neither of the places I went to had them. I ended up going with a nickel plated cage handle that worked well enough. I marked holes on the frame using the handles as a guide and then used a drill for the holes. The holes on one side weren't quite lined up, but the handle was forgiving and it still screwed in. Afterward, we realized that the screw heads were rounded. This made the tray not quite lay flat on the table and also created a possibility for scratching the table. So I bought some felt stickers that were taller than the screw heads and placed them in the corners.

 

Finally I had to select the paper to go in the tray. The tray was shaped differently than the 12x12 paper I had selected. Since it was striped I had some added difficulty of having to line up the paper properly and cut it down to size. However, I was able to find some paper that complemented some of my fun napkings well. My mom loves bright fun colors and has dishes in several colors that would match these colors. If I had a tray like this I'd probably change it out for the seasons, but knowing my Mom she'll probably just leave it these bright summery colors.

All in all this was a quick project that took one afternoon to create including hunting for all of the pieces.