Western General Store

I'm using up the last of my weathered pallet so I wanted to make a tray. This is one of those 'design as you build' projects. Instead of having upright sides I decided to lay them down. I used 3/4" screws and a counter sink bit to attach the three boards to the frame. Here's the side view and you can see how the frame hangs over a bit on the ends. I painted all of the cut ends as rustic as I could to match. I was going to use rope for handles until I saw the painted horseshoes lying there from previous project and I thought 'perfect'! You can use and decorate this tray in many ways.

To make a Rustic Western Breakfast Tray, I took wide weathered pallet boards and cut them the size I wanted. I painted the cut ends by using various watered down mixtures of gray, brown, black and white acrylic paint and wiping it off with a damp rag. I screwed the top boards to the side boards and attached corner braces underneath for strength. I screwed in the Large Horseshoes for handles. The dimensions are approximately 20" wide x 10" deep x 6" tall. This tray can be used as a breakfast tray in bed or on the couch. Or use it for reading a book or writing.

Use our cast iron spur  for a curtain tie back. This one was unpainted and I spray painted it textured brown and a little black. I cut off the strap holder on one side with a hack saw and smoothed it down with a grinder. I drilled a hole with a drill press. This picture shows the spur screwed into the window trim.

My neighbor had some old cedar fence posts and was kind enough to let me use them for this project. The post was cut into pieces of 5, 7, and 9 inches long. A 1 5/8" hole was drilled in the top with a drill press which is a perfect size for tea lights. I cut the bottom of the cedar post that had been decaying in the ground and made a long tea light holder. It was smaller and the outside color was grey. It is 28" long. When the post was cut the exposed cedar is beautiful and smells so good. Here is a side view of the bottom of the post. I left one end natural and ragged. These would be great for a holiday table center piece with evergreen branches or any time of year for rustic décor.