Hey everyone! My beautiful fiance and I decided to make a serving tray for suitable for everyone's halloween parties! The best part is it's easy to re-create and customize the size and color!

First, pick your boards! Rip, cross cut and sand your boards a little larger than the final dimensions. We chose to make ours 12"x24" knowing that it will be reshaped and sanded down again later. We also cut our two braces that the handles sit on.

We attached the braces to the boards with wood glue and brads (if you make this on your own take note to only attach towards the middle of your serving tray! Remember, you'll be cutting some of your edges and you don't want to have to navigate through the brads. You can always go back later and add more for reinforcement!)

Next? Bring on the blowtorch! We broke out our handheld propane torch to add some depth to our finished product. Don't over-burn -- just enough to darken the grain. The drier the wood, the faster the burn! We also used the propane torch to burn the majority of our cross (detail work was done with a cheap woodburner kit).

Then we flipped it over and traced the coffin so that we could cut it out with the jigsaw! Sand and burn the grain on the edges when you're done. Flip it back over and check out your progress!

Then comes your time to customize! Pick your favorite Rust-Oleum stain and apply it to your serving tray. We decided to use Early American but feel free to use whatever color you like!

The handles we used were repurposed from an old trash can. We took the propane torch out one more time and reshaped the handles to fit our needs and to take the nickel coating off to give them a hammered, aged look. Once we were happy with the shape and color, we dropped them in cold water and then left them to dry. We came back to them later and added a clear coat using Rust-oluem's clear matte enamel.

Attach your handles, pick your sealer (we used poly) and get ready to plan your next party!

Let us know what you think!

Coffin Serving Tray