This week’s post is the next challenge for our International Blogger’s challenge club (IBC). Each month we get together to create a project around a common theme.  Our theme this month was “Tray Chic”, which was a very difficult challenge for me. I ended up doing a wooden barn quilt tray.

There are not many projects on the internet involving a tray that has not been done a million times.  With my website being called Unique Creation I had to try and come up with something a little different. This wooden barn quilt tray was my contribution.

More info about IBC (International Bloggers challenge club) and their contributions to this challenge can be found at the end of this post.

The idea for the wooden barn quilt tray came up as I was looking around my home for ideas. I believe this is because I have done a few barn quilts in the past.  I have one in my spare room as a headboard, one outside as a table and a few as artwork.

The one downside to doing a barn quilt is that it can be time-consuming.  To get a well-fitting design you need to make sure all the wood is cut to the same thickness, width and cut at the same angle.

We have just come back from Thailand after a 3-week holiday and I think I was still in holiday mode and forget to get my project done, so time was a factor.  To speed up the making of this project I found an old wooden blind in my workshop that would make it quick and easy for me to make my barn quilt tray.

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How to make a wooden barn quilt tray

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Find suitable wood

As I mentioned above if your wood is prepared correctly a barn quilt is very easy to make because all the pieces will slot together like a jigsaw puzzle. You can use any wood to do a barn quilt as long as it is cut correctly.

If you want to try and do a barn quilt but have always thought it would be too hard.  Try using recycled materials as I did because it made it easier.

For this project, I used an old wooden blind and a recycled wooden counter that I salvaged from a building site. The counter was tongue and groove wood which will make it easier for the wood to slot together.  The only downside to using recycled wood is that you have to clean up the wood first.  But the cost of buying new wood is far greater than the work involved to clean up recycled wood.

I use recycled materials for most of my projects so a wood planer is my most used tool in my workshop. I started by taking the counter apart using a claw hammer to pull out the supports.

Cut the wood to size

Next, I used a mitre saw to cut away the wood holding the nails so the wood can safely go through the wood planer. For this tray, I used 3 pieces of wood cut to 600mm long.

The width of each plank was 90mm.

Because I used tongue and groove wood I had to cut the outer edges smooth for a better look.  I did this using a table saw.  You do not need all the equipment I have used, a jig saw and hand saw with a mitre box will do the same work just not as quickly.

Once my wood was cut to size, I put the wood through the planer to remove all the paint and clean the surface.

Building the tray

The design of the wooden tray is very basic.  I slotted the tongue and groove together and cut two pieces of wood the size of the width.  This support will hold the tray together. Next, add some wood glue to the joins and slot the tongue and groove together. I clamped the wood to pull the joins together tightly while I added the supports.

Adding the supports

Because I wanted to do this project quickly I wanted to add some screws to hold the wood in place while the glue was drying. To prevent the screw from sticking out and scratching my surface tops I counter sunk the screws.  The supports will be glued in place at the end.

Cutting up the wooden blind

Start by cutting the strings that hold the blind together.

I cut two sizes because the middle section of the blind was longer and I did not want to waste any wood.

I used a drop saw to cut the blinds to size. To make sure they were all cut the same size I piled a few together and clamped them to the saw. Don’t forget to wear your safety glasses while doing this, small pieces can fly up. First I cut all the blinds straight to make sure they were all even.

I adjusted the angle of the saw to 45 degrees to cut the angle. Yours does not have to be 45 degrees it can be any angle as long as they are all the same they will slot together.

I clamped a small pile together and lined up the laser with the corner of the straight cut as shown and made the cut.

Next, flip the pile over and do the same cut to the opposite side. Don’t throw away all the small triangles because depending on the design you will need them to fill in the small gaps.

That is your cutting done for now.  To know how many you will roughly need I work it out by covering the surface of the tray and adding another third. That way I don’t have to go back to cutting more pieces.

Creating your design

Start by dividing your base in half and draw a pencil line in both directions.  This will be your guide to keeping the design straight. I went with a quick and easy design. Start by lining up two pieces put together like an arrow along the centre lines.

Creating a design is as simple as slotting “arrows” into each other as shown below and just keep repeating the design.

Once you have your design it is time to paint the wood.

Depending on the gaps you can use the small triangles to fill in the gaps. Mine were slightly too small so I had to go with larger pieces that I would cut to size.

I chose to use the bigger pieces and cut them down to size. I drew a line to show where the tray support goes and cut away the excess.

Cutting small pieces can be dangerous on a drop saw because your hands will be too close to the blade.  For safety reasons, I use a benchtop sander and I sanded away the excess.  You can use any sander to do this.

Painting the design

I used acrylic paint to do mine but you can use wood stain if you choose.

Once the paint is dry you can now glue the wood to the tray.

I added some wood glue and a small amount of hot glue to hold the pieces in place while the wood glue dries. Start in the middle and work your way out. Once I had all the main pieces in place I had to go back to my shed and cut away the excess as explained above.

If you are making a barn quilt with thicker wood like the one shown below you can simply cut away the excess using a saw.  This was not possible for this project because the blinds were so thin and the saw will cause the wood to splinter.

To finish off you can screw the side supports back on and add some handles to the sides.

You will need handles that can be screwed into the top or from the bottom.

I only noticed while adding the image below that I was not happy with the edges.  I think I will be going back and either adding some veneer tape or painting the sides.

More about IBC

If you follow my blog you will know I am part of the IBC (International Bloggers Club) which is a group of talented bloggers from around the world. We have members from Spain, South Africa, Australia, the United States, and Canada. Each month we come together and create a project with a common theme.

To see the “Tray Chic ” contributions from my fellow bloggers joining us this month keep scrolling, please feel free to jump over and give them some love.

Michelle from A crafty mix shared this very unique tray made from Cardboard, resin and slat.

Rachel from Tea and forget me nots shared how to give a bed tray a makeover.

Kirstin from The 5th Sparrow no more shared how to make a simple tiered tray.

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