Last Christmas I made a fun Christmas tree from vintage folding rulers. I’m not sure I ever blogged about it but it left me with quite a few pieces of vintage rulers to play with. I thought a little tray would be a good use of some of the pieces. There are always bunches of keys and receipts lying around so I thought a tray would be useful to tidy up our hall.

Upcycled folding ruler tray materials:
Hardboard
Vintage folding ruler
PVA wood glue
Sand paper

How to make an upcycled folding ruler tray:

I re-used a folding ruler by cutting off the metal ends, this left me with approximately 25cm lengths.

I decided on the size of my box and cut the wood accordingly. I purchased a piece of hardboard from my local DIY shop which they cut to size and used PVA woodglue to glue the ruler to the hardboard. Then I clamped the pieces together and left it overnight so the glue would dry.

The next day I removed the clamps and gave the edges a very light sand to remove any rough edges.

My tray has one divider so I lined each side with some pretty paper as the hardboard looked quite dull. I think the paper came from Tiger and I used a Blu Stick to glue it in place.

I’ve used small blobs of Sugru on the base to stop it scratching any wooden surfaces.

I think the tray looks great and I may be making a few more as they would make lovely gifts.