Decorative Trays
Trays to hold centerpiece things
Introduction
I’ve made various decorative trays over the years. These usually serve as centre pieces for a table, and hold things like candles or ornaments.
These are pretty simple to make, basically a box without a lid. But they are great for practice and developing skills and joinery techniques.
In my early versions of these, I made them entirely out of solid wood, mostly red oak. This is all good, but with the bottom made out of solid wood, well they are heavy. Too heavy in some cases. The one on the dining table is hard for me to lift. If I were to make these today, I would make the bottoms out of plywood, make thinner sides, and maybe even use a different wood to save on the weight.
Getting to it
Melting
Candles left too long in the sun. I’m melting…
Fool In The Rain
This tray was left outside in the rain once…ONCE, yet the damage was surprisingly significant. Busted the corner mitres in a couple of places.
An Experiment
Pro tip: When mixing differnt substances in your creations, allow for the fact that they are going to expand and contract at different rates. Surprisingly different really.
Tiling Time
This was made for Sylvie and Bill. They are kind enough to leave it on display on their coffee table.
It was quite an experiment at the time. I had never worked with tile like this, nor had I mixed two different building materials in the same piece before. I would do things very differently if I were to make this today. I am not proud of the failing mitres…I think I will have to break into their house one day, fix it up, and then sneak it back in.
Finer Dining
Heavy Set
This is the one that weighs a ton…or two.
I would likely not make it this way today: rather than making a solid oak bottom that is 3/4″ thick (heavy!), I would use 1/4″ plywood that fits into a dado cut along all sides.
There is one good thing about having such a beefy flat bottom to the piece, it’s that it makes it easy to screw the sides to it and square it up nicely.
Pro tip: Don’t make something so heavy that even you can’t lift it.
On the Table
Materials
- Red Oak from Robert Bury
- Kreg pocket holes and screws
- Various General Finishes products for stain and seal