DIY Leather Belt Tray

A leather belt tray is today’s project and I am a teensy bit in love with it.

I had a stack of western-style leather belts in my closet.

The leather belts originally came from my dad’s closet and I’m presuming he wore them once or twice.

Then the leather belts hung in my closet and I didn’t wear them at all.

I was just waiting over a year for inspiration to strike on how to reuse those leather belts and when it did, HOLY MOLY was it good.

Creating a leather belt tray is the easiest, most satisfying project. Anyone can do it.

You just need a leather belt or two, a wood tray, scissors or utility knife, glue, and a measuring tape. The number of belts you need depends on the size of your wood tray.

All you are going to do is cut your leather belts to length and glue them to the bottom of your wood tray.

See?

Told you this was going to be easy.

You can cut leather belts with a utility knife or scissors.

I glued the belts down with wood glue, but any heavy duty glue would do.

I did not use hot glue because I wanted the leather belts to lie perfectly flat.

Let’s see how it turned out…

Be still my heart.

Good, right? So good.

I was worried about this leather belt tray looking too country western, since that isn’t the style of my home.

However, because I tucked the belts into the bottom of the tray it’s a more subtle effect.

It is a little less ‘howdy, partner!” and a little more “hey, y’all!” and I’m cool with that! 

Of course, this wouldn’t be an issue if I used a different style of leather belt.

I do have three leather belt tray project tips.

First, try to use belts that don’t have a bend in the center from where they were squished by a belt loop. Curves or bends are not helpful when you are trying to line a tray with straight edges. Alternatively, just plan on not using that section of the belt. 

Second, if your belt has a metal post punched through it that is in the way, meaning it won’t lie flat in your tray because of that post, you can pry it out using pliers.

Third, I did run into one small problem where I had just a little wiggle room between the belts when I laid them down in my tray. It was around a half an inch of total extra space. 

It wasn’t enough to contemplate trying to cut one of the belts down to size length-wise.

Instead, I filled the gap with a piece of flat leather cording. If you look closely in any of these pictures you can see there is a strip of this flat leather cording in the center of the tray and also along the edges.

The leather cording is a little trickier to glue down because it likes to move around and may be bent from being wrapped up in its packaging. However, it blends in so well and was the easiest solution for this problem.

What do you think of this project?

Is a leather belt tray something you might consider putting your own spin on for your home?

This project ticks a lot of boxes for me.

Sentimental? Yes.
Up-cycled? Yes.
Repurposed? Yes.
Unique? Yes.
Creative? Yes.
Inexpensive? Yes.
Customizable? Yes.
Easy? Heck yeah! 

Happy creating, folks!

Leather Belt Tray Project Details:

The wood tray in today’s project is part of an old tool chest, I believe. It says “Standard Gauge, Poughkeepsie, NY, on the back.” I paid $10 for it at an antique store called Get a Grip & More in New Jersey. 

The leather belts were ones I already owned, but you can find belts at thrift stores for cheap! 

Thanks for reading today’s post. I hope you found some project inspiration. Here are some other posts you might enjoy.

Turn an Accent Table into a Decorative Tray

Display Shelf from a Silverware Tray

A Rummage Sale Find!

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