Farmhouse Tea Tray [From an Antique Door]

If you’re like me, whenever you come across a “great” piece of wood, you wonder, “What I can I do with that great piece of wood,” LOL.

I recently came across an antique cabinet door that spoke “farmhouse tea tray” to me. It’s something we all need around the holidays, right? Whether we’re serving coffee, tea, or dessert, we need something to serve it ON.

This project is #11 in my 12 Days of Christmas event. 

I’m calling it a tea tray, but really, it’s just a great, heavy-duty tray that can hold almost anything. But on this cool wintery day, I happen to be serving my favorite, peppermint tea.

Note: This post contains affiliate links for [the same or similar] products used to complete this project. This is both for your convenience as well as to support my website, since I receive a small compensation whenever you click on a link and make any sort of purchase, for which I thank you 🙂 See my full disclosure here.

It all started with this dusty, cobweb-covered wooden door (at least that’s what I’ve decided to call it since I’m not really sure what it was actually intended to be).

First things first, I dusted it with my hand-held shop broom and wiped it down with some soapy water.

To moisturize the wood and bring out its color, I gave it a spa treatment: a rub down with my homemade wood salve. All clean and satiny smooth, I finally settled on turning it into a serving tray.

I sorted through my stash of handles, but none of them were large enough for this door, and I am loath to go out and buy anything brand new, if I can “make-do” with something I already own.

That’s when I remembered using an old leather belt to create a carrying handle on an antique crate. I went straight to my belt stash and found the perfect belt. [I dare you to name an item, any item, that I don’t have a stash of, LOL.]

I have a pair of 12″ tailor’s scissors that cut through leather belts like “butta.” I cut two sections, each 9″ long.

Like this.

I drove a couple of pilot holes on each end to make hammering them onto the door easier.

The braces on the door created the ideal location for attaching whatever sort of handle I would decide to use.

Two nails on either end of the belt pieces and a dab of my favorite glue (WeldBond) were sufficient to tightly secure the handles to the door.

Could a project be any easier?

It makes the the perfect farmhouse presentation.

When we lived in England (2009-2011), we picked up five of these Starbucks “England” mugs as mementos.

Five in order to have an extra, which has since broken, but happily we’ve managed to hang onto these four.

If I’m being honest with you, I’m a little bit in love with my new tray and may have to keep it for a while before allowing it to fall into the hands of a new owner.