Cabinet Door Repurposed Into a Tray

This post will show you how to make a cabinet door repurposed into a tray. This is an easy project, perfect for beginners.

Cabinet doors are easily found at your local Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. I get mine in various places and many times for free.

I measured and drew my lines for a Harlequin pattern.

I used the  Painter’s Tape to mark off my diamonds.

I painted the diamonds blue.

I wanted a little something extra for my tray. Scotch Blue Painter’s tape is great for making your own stencils. Overlap some tape onto waxed paper.

 

Print off a template. You can see how I did this painter's tape stencil on my post Harlequin Fleur-de-lis Stenciling

 

I chose Ebony paint from DecoArt for the Fleur-de-lis.

Here is my former cabinet door looking all dressed up in her new outfit! I asked the opinions of my readers, and they overwhelmingly said . . . “it should be a tray”.

 

  This Rockler Drawer Pull Jig allows you to get uniform measurements each and every time. I have made trays before and I found it difficult to get the holes the right distance apart. Not with this jig! You simply find the center of your wood, choose the right width of your handle, and center your handle from top to bottom.
The “fence” on the left locks your measurements in place so that if you’re doing more than one drawer, the handles will be the same on all of the drawers.

 

My handles are 3 inch centers, so I set the jig so that those holes are centered left to right and top to bottom. I used an auto center punch. I have to tell you I was amazed at what this little tool does! I went around punching “dents” in scrap wood in amazement! Seriously! Something so simple entertained me for quite a while.
Do you see those two little indentations? SWEET! That little punch is going to come in very handy. Why? you ask!
Because of this feature right here. Instead of marking your spot with a pencil, you PUNCH the spot. Because it leaves that special indentation, your drill bit has a “resting” spot, meaning it’s less likely to jump around. I think this will really come in handy when I do hinges on my Window Cabinets!

 

It is winter, and very cold here, soooo you can see I’m working right in my kitchen. I drilled the holes on both sides, and the handles fit perfectly! Plus, they are equidistant on both sides. I’m pretty good, but usually my handles are not this perfect.

 

I decided to change out the paint. I taped of the inset part of the cabinet door with some more Scotch Blue Painter’s tape.

 

You can see the handles in the background before I painted them. You can also see that I have my kitchen island/bar covered with plastic. 😉
Using some more Mythic paint, and a fabulous Purdy Paint Brush  I changed out the blue to the grey.
I spray painted the handles (in the basement, due to the weather) and attached them with some screws leftover from my kitchen handles.

 

I have a lot of handles in my stash, but I chose these because of the detail. It reminded me of the fleur-de-lis shape.

 

I’m still playing around with maybe hanging it on the wall when it’s not in use. We’ll see. I don’t have a nail in the wall where it would go, so I didn’t want to hang it yet until I’m sure. Sometimes I’m so wishy washy!
Thanks for hanging in there with me folks! Ya’ll are the bestest!

gail

See more cabinet door project ideas here

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