How To Decorate Plastic Black Catering Trays For Reuse

Elevate your party table with a touch of creativity and practicality! Transforming those plain black catering trays into colorful trays that seamlessly blend with your party theme is so easy. It is a food-safe solution to decorate trays and is not time-consuming. I tried and tested this technique a few times for parties and it works great! The best part? It is a hassle-free tray cleanup and we can keep these trays for your next party event. Check out the simplicity and charm of this creative hosting hack!

*In my photos I used paper napkin colors for a Mardi Gras holiday table.

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What we need:

Paper napkins

Plastic wrap

Plate smaller than tray ( to press plastic to the tray)

We can also use instead of paper napkins thin scrapbook paper or wrapping paper.

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Place paper napkins as you like the design on the tray.

*Don’t use too many napkins, so you can able to lock the cover to the tray.

2. Cover napkins with plastic wrap and make sure you have on both sides enough wrap, so when we turn the tray we can stick plastic to each other. Place a second tray on the top of the tray to hold the plastic wrap in place. It is a necessary step to press plastic with another plate! If you don’t, our tray will be like a drum, plastic doesn’t stay sticking to the tray. There still will be some plastic elevation above the tray with a plate too but we will be able to place food easily and there will be not much air under.

*We can use instead of a smaller tray the same size black tray to hold plastic with napkins down.

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3. Turn around the tray and stick plastic wrap to each other in the bottom as I show in the photo.

4. Turn around and repeat the same as many times as you need to cover well napkins.

*How many layers of wrap we make depends on what kind of food we serve and how thick plastic wrap you use. Keep in mind, that catering trays have locks, and for convenience and safety of food if you don’t have don’t use many layers of plastic wrap. For example, for deviled eggs, I covered 3 times 16-inch tray with a 12-inch with my plastic clear food wrap.

5. If too much air is trapped beneath the plastic wrap on the top of the tray. A simple fix is to put the tray upside down and make small openings in the plastic. The weight of the food pushes out the air.

Our theme match tray is ready and it took me a few minutes.

I like to use catering trays to transport and serve party food, especially for large parties and outdoor events. Trays are perfect for sandwiches, appetizers, cheese-meat platters, fruit platters, vegetable platters, baked goods, and much more. I like to reuse these trays and usually cover them with plastic wrap with decor paper or without. We don’t need much cleaning after removing the plastic from the trays. However, I suggest rinsing and drying trays with lids before storing them, no matter how clean they look.

When transporting food with someone, it’s a good idea to use painter’s tape to securely seal the lid on a tray, preventing any accidental openings. Painter tape is easy to remove and it leaves no residue behind.

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The photo below is from a real-life celebration of Mardi Gras 2024, held at the car repair auto shop owned by my husband’s friend. On the trays deviled eggs and stuffed jalapeno peppers. I removed the covers from the trays after the event and the trays look clean. I rinsed them at home and dried them with paper towels. I can reuse them again, they look like new.