Wooden Serving Tray

A while back a co-worker of mine asked me if I wanted some “scrap” wood from a family members house. I of course said yes. (I’ll admit I sort of have a problem and may be referred to as a wood hoarder, email me for more but otherwise a topic for another day). What he brought me was a pile of scrap hardwood flooring something I wasn’t expecting but none the less it was free wood. After looking at this pile of wood in the shop the idea came. The wood floor pieces would fit nicely together to form a panel. My wife (girlfriend at the time) had been asking for a tray so she could carry odds and ends upstairs to her office. So with a little creativity I came up with these serving trays. There is a maple bottom and an oak. I was able to make three in total and my friend who gave me the wood I ended up making them a serving tray as a wedding gift.

Fun, practical, and functional project taking scrap wood that was going to be thrown in the garbage and making it into a wedding gift and a staple household item in our house.

Barn Wood Mail Organizer

Our friends Pat and Linda from P&L Rusty Iron, go out west a couple times a year and pick old homesteads bringing back found treasures. While picking through their recent haul, we found some old rusty bins, some barn wood, among other things. We brought everything home and tucked it away in the shop. Like most things I make, I don’t start until I have some sort of vision in my head. How neat would it be to make a mail organizer from the bins and barn wood. The bins are believed to be from an old grain conveyor, lying in a field just rusting away. The barn wood has a beautiful weathered patina. The combination of the bins and wood is gorgeous.

Two seeming ordinary “junky” things wasting away in a field brought together to live another repurposed life. This is why I love what I do and is the spirit behind Maker and Finder. Make. Find. Create.