How to Make an Artistic Food Tray

Series Summary

A food tray is a shallow platform designed for carrying food items. It is larger than a salver tray, a smaller version commonly used for lighter and smaller servings, and it can be made from a number of materials, including silver, brass, sheet iron, wood, melamine, and papier-mâché. Trays are flat, but have raised edges to stop food and plates from sliding off of them. They are made in a variety of shapes, but are usually found in oval or rectangular forms, sometimes containing cutout or attached handles that can be used to carry them.

Food trays don't have to be dull carriers of meals from the kitchen to the table. You can use these items as palettes for artistic expression. In this free video series, our expert will show you how to go about painting a food tray with step-by-step instructions. Learn what supplies you need to paint a food tray, how to mix paint, and how to paint every part and side of the tray. Express you creativity in the kitchen with this unique artistic vision! No longer will you carry food into a room and think, I wish this food tray looked nicer. Spruce up your life and spruce up your food trays!

Video Transcript

"DAVID CLEMEN: Hi, I'm David Clemen on behalf of Expert Village. And today, we're going to paint a wooden food tray. All right, welcome back. Today, we're going to paint a food tray, and you can see it's just a basic food tray that I bought at a store, an art supplies store. And we're going to paint- what I've come up with is I'm going to paint an apple, an orange and bananas and maybe some grapes in there and then we'll put a design around the edges. And the way that we're going to do this today, I'll give you all the items that you're going to need. I'll show what supplies you're going to use, different techniques and how to finish it off. And also I'll show you how to seal it up with a lacquer finish so you can actually use it for a real food. "