Easy Project To Repurpose An Old Cabinet Door To A Count Your Blessings Thanksgiving Tray

Have you admired those Pinterest posts where someone upcycles an old cabinet door and gives it new purpose and life as home decor?

Yeah, me too!

With this project where I was able to apply my own skills to an old cabinet door front, I was finally able to tackle my own DIY project inspired by all those posts to repurpose old cabinet doors that I have pinned for years. 

After helping to renovate a few spaces in our church after it sustained some storm damage, I acquired a kitchen cabinet door that I was able to repurpose into a DIY one-of-a-kind serving tray.

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Easy Project To Repurpose An Old Cabinet Door To A Count Your Blessings Thanksgiving Tray

A few years ago I obtained four old kitchen cabinet doors from a church renovation project.  For nearly a year they sat in my craft room just waiting for a new life.  I finally upcycled all four of them by following some of the tips shared on Pinterest by other talented bloggers for repurposed cabinet door ideas.  

This project was one of my favorites. 

 

 

I was lucky to obtain these four old cabinet doors for free.  But I have also seen them for sale several times at my favorite thrift store or yard sales. 

In my opinion, the perfect use for an old cabinet door is to give it a repurposed life as a serving tray or as wall decor.

My first attempt with the two smaller cabinet doors was a great way to upcycle the old doors and make custom signs for my home.

 

 

The Family Sign shown above was sold last year in my vendor booth.  Imagine my surprise to find out that another vendor had purchased the sign from my booth and tripled the price to sell in her own booth.  A little aggravating to see that, but at the same time I guess she appreciated my work because she didn’t make any changes to it at all.  Just put a new price on it and hung it in her booth.

True story. 

 

 

A few years ago, I wrote a series of Patriotic craft projects one project a week on the blog.

For that series, I turned one of the larger doors into a custom flag tray that I always keep out on display all summer every year.

 

 

 

 

Cabinet Door Serving Tray Take Two!

Since I still had one door left, I decided to create another custom tray for the fall holiday season that had a more rustic and seasonal Fall look.

 

 

With every one of my easy cabinet door projects, I started by cleaning the old door with soap and water and then sanding it down with 120 grit sandpaper. 

Even if I was using chalk paint over the old stain, I still gave each door a thorough sandpaper treatment to help prep the surface for new paint.

This old cabinet door was then painted with several layers of cream-color chalk paint as the base color.  Once it had completely dried, I once again went over the sides and raised areas of the door with 220-grit sandpaper to give the door a more aged look.

 

 

After painting on several layers of cream-colored chalk paint on the front of the cabinet door, I painted the words “Count Your Blessings” from a stencil in my craft room stash in metallic bronze acrylic paint. 

Inspired to create a Fall pumpkin theme for the tray, I then drew several pumpkin designs with pink chalk on the front until I found a design I liked. 

By using a colored piece of chalk to draw the design before using paint on the door, you can make changes much easier if you don’t like the design the first time before you start painting.

 

 

A combination of orange, white, brown, and metallic copper paint added in all of the extra details for the pumpkins and cotton branches.

 

 

 

The only thing I needed to spend money on for this easy project was the two branch-style handles for the tray. 

Originally these cabinet doors did not have hardware or handles that could be reused for the tray.  Luckily I was able to find new hardware that was perfect in style and color to be used as handles on a Fall themed tray with painted pumpkins.  The new handles look like gold-covered tree branches that I found at Hobby Lobby.  A bonus was that I was able to keep it under a $10 budget.

 

 

 

By making these two very different styled serving trays I was able to repurpose cabinet doors into a great idea for home decor for my home.  The end result is a one-of-a-kind serving tray that is the perfect way to upcycle an old cabinet door. 

 

 

Other ways to put those old cabinet doors to good use:

• Add some hooks and a shelf for a coat rack.
• Add small feet to make a table riser.
• Paint it as a holiday sign.
• Add baskets as a wall organizer.
• Paint it with black chalkboard paint for a memo board.
• Use taller cabinet doors as a base for a desk.
• Join several of them together to create a new headboard.
• Build an outdoor planter box.
• Build a custom shelf system.

 And so much more.  

 

Pin For Later

 

 

Hugs,

 

Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord.”