Give A Thrift Store Tray A New Life
8 Materials
$10
2 Days
Easy
I see wooden trays all of the time at the thrift stores and I wanted to make something fun using one of them. I decided a magnetic message board would be the perfect project.
This was my tray when I started. Cute right? As much as I loved the roosters and chickens I decided to paint over them. LOL!
I started by painting the entire tray black. I like to do this so when I distress the final paint color the black shows through not the light wood of the original tray. When the black was dry I used a pretty teal-ish color over the black.
I measured and cut a piece of cork to fit inside the tray leaving a little room on the sides for the burlap to fit.
This cork is thicker than the squares or the rolls you can purchase so readily. I got this at the thrift store too. It is about 1/2 inch thick so it fit nicely into the tray.
Then I cut a piece of printed burlap (larger than the cork piece) and wrapped it around the cork and used hot glue on the edges and on the back to keep it in place.
As I mentioned before this was a magnetic cork board so now I needed the magnetic part.
I have used hardware cloth in other projects so I cut a piece to fit over the top and fold over the edges. I use a board as shown below to bend the hardware cloth.
I used the hot glue to glue it all in place inside the tray. Then I added some twine with some small clothes pins and some magnet clips.
I love the way it turned out. It has a romantic, farmhouse feel to it and it works. I gave it to my neighbor and she loved it.
If you liked this up-cycled magnetic memo board you will probably like more projects from my blog. I invite you to sign up for my email/newsletter. You will receive weekly emails with all of my projects, printables and more!
Happy crafting!
Michelle
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Comments
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4 of 34 comments
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Very nice! I acquired a tray similar to the one you started with, but UGLY!! Thanks for the inspiration
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I am glad you like it and were inspired!
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What a great idea!
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Thank you!
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Frequently asked questions
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What is hardware cloth made of?
I really like this. But wondering, why magnetic cork, isn’t the wire magnetic?