The Best Wooden Serving Trays & How to Use Them

The Best Wooden Serving Trays & How to Use Them

When you have stunning solid wood serving trays, they do most of the heavy lifting for you, meaning it’s not very hard to make them look nice. With just a little creativity and a few extra supplies, you can make these wooden serving boards stand out and be the star of your appetizer & serving game. We love these wooden serving platters because of their versatility. From appetizers, drink service, main dishes and more, the elegant serving options are endless.
Here is a list of the top 5 creative ways to use a wooden serving board: 

1. Wooden Drink Trays

When you want to add a little extra something to your drink service without going over the top, a wooden drink tray is the way to go. Whether you are looking to spice up service on a kitchen counter at home or a tabletop at your bar or restaurant, a drink tray can add instant class. With just a few glasses and a little bit of garnish, you’re all set to serve. You can add a row of tasting glasses for sampling beer and wine or pair a hot ceramic coffee mug with a scone for quick and easy service.  

2. Wooden Centerpieces

These gorgeous round wooden boards are not just great for serving food and drinks, but they also create a nice unique idea for centerpieces. The easy elegance of the board in itself makes it simple to create a stunning look in just seconds. With a few candles, a vase of flowers or a bowl of pretty little things, you can take your coffee table tray décor and centerpieces to the next level. You can even take things even further by stacking and pairing different boards together to create depth and more interest. 

3. Wooden Serving Boards for Restaurants

While this may be one of the most obvious ways to use wooden serving platters, you can get pretty creative and produce a stunningly unique presentation. It’s easy to create an appetizing cheese platter or a tempting display of bruschetta your guests can’t wait to dig into.  From appetizers, desserts and main courses, the possibilities can go as far as your imagination.

Plain white plates are essential to every restaurant dinnerware collection, but because of that, it is hard to make that presentation look different and exciting. By swapping out the plain white plate to an interesting wooden serving board, you are instantly creating a unique look that will be remembered. Since the serving paddles come in a variety of sizes and shapes, you can get the exact one you need to fit any dish on your menu.

4. Mixing & Matching Tabletop Display

The wooden platter looks great on its own, but if you add a few extra dinnerware add on items you can create something truly spectacular. The wood grain look provides a palette that is flexible enough to match a wide range of materials and textures. You can go as simple as adding a stainless steel dip cup or a ceramic ramekin for sides or you can go a little more complex with small cast iron skillets that help create a rustic look. The flat surface of the trays provide more room to be creative without being confined to the rims, slopes and shapes of traditional dinnerware plates. Mixing and matching tabletop accessories is on trend right now, so this is an easy to way to keep your image fresh and current.

5. Kitchen & Restaurant Decoration

Wooden serving trays aren't just for food and drink! If you work and live in an environment that centers on food, it only makes sense to incorporate that into your decor. With the variety of textures and wood colors available, it's easy to create a decorative display like the one displayed below. You can stack and pile the boards together and let the different shapes, sizes and colors do the work for you. 

anderson + grant shows us a great way to use wooden paddles as decoration. No matter how you use your wooden serving trays, you are sure to be left with a nice presentation. While most of the boards are going to look great on their own, you can create a real masterpiece when you add a little bit of creativity. Whether you are looking for coffee table décor for your house or a couple of creative food service ideas for your restaurant, wooden trays can help you pull it off.