Turn An Old Wine Crate Into A New Serving Tray

Hi, I’m Jamie from So Much Better With Age back again with another fun DIY project! Does anyone out there have wooden wine crates that they don’t know what to do with? You know, you might keep them in your basement or garage waiting for an idea to pop in your head about what you could do with them. Because they are solid wood, maybe not the best wood but wood nonetheless, I could never part with them and I’ve collected quite a few over the years. I finally came up with an idea! Why not turn an old wine crate into a new serving tray?

Here is what one looked like before. Just an unfinished wood box with the wine merchant’s name on the front.

Inside it has dividers for three bottles of wine. Just bend the slats a bit and they’ll pop right out. Save them as you’ll be using them again!

First I took out all the shredding and stained it a dark stain. I used Minwax Special Walnut but any dark stain will do. Stain the divider slats as well.

Allow the stain to dry completely then paint over your freshly stained box with any type of white paint. I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White. Chalk paint sands off quite easily but if you used a latex paint, you could just paint a thin coat on and you’d have a similar effect.Paint the whole box white, dry then sand off as much as you’d like.Make sure to do the same with the divider slats.

Add two handles to either end.You can see by the photo below I put in one of those slats so there would be a division between drinks and snacks. When you carry the tray, the drinks won’t move around and you’ll be able to serve your guests a snack at the same time.

 

I’m in love with this tray because trays that are completely flat feel like everything is going to topple over so I rarely use trays. I really like the sturdiness of this wine crate tray!

 

I hope I’ve inspired you to make a handy and beautiful serving tray from a wooden wine crate. You might want to check out some other DIY projects I have listed below.

 

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Faux Zinc Paint Technique

Craft Cabinet

Little Shelf to Coat Rack