DIY Farmhouse Pedestal Tray

I love coming up with ways to display my home décor items, so I am really excited about this DIY project that requires only a few basic supplies and took me less than an hour to make. Farmhouse décor is all the rage right now, but quality items can be a little pricey. I made this farmhouse pedestal tray for under $20 and it’s perfect for displaying a pretty vase filled with flowers and other knick-knacks or even in your bedroom as a jewelry and perfume display. Continue reading the full tutorial to see how this project comes together!

TO MAKE THIS DIY FARMHOUSE PEDESTAL TRAY YOU WILL NEED:

• Unfinished round wood plaque (can be purchased at Home Depot or Lowe’s)
• 4 unfinished short spindles with screws adhered to the ends (Home Depot / Lowe’s)
• Wood stain or paint (depending on the look you’re going for).
  I used 4 different stains – White Wash Pickling, Ebony, Dark Walnut & Early American. Below I will show you how to achieve the weathered look on my pedestal
• Sandpaper
• Paint brush or stain rag
• Wood glue

To begin, lightly sand your round wood plaque to smooth the wood. Then use your paint brush or rag to cover the entire surface with White Wash Pickling stain. This is my favorite white wash but if you don’t want to spend the money, you can also take a white acrylic paint and add a little water to it to create a “wash.” You may need to cover it with a couple of coats, it will just depend on how well it soaks into the wood. Give the wash just a little bit of time to soak into the wood before taking the next step. Although, if you like this look, leave it as is!

To create a weathered wood finish like mine, you will add a second layer to your wood with Early American stain. I used very light strokes with an old rag. Next you will add light strokes of Dark Walnut stain and then repeat with Ebony stain. I already had all of these stains so, again, if you don’t have stain or don’t want to spend the money on it you can use watered down brown and black acrylics to achieve this same look.

You can see the difference between the two layers in the picture above. The nice thing about this technique is that you can’t really mess it up! You just keep adding layers of light brush strokes until you achieve the look you want. Just be sure to cover your area so that you don’t get stain anywhere you don’t want it! Unfortunately, our dining room table has turned into my craft table and it’s covered in paint splatters, haha.

Repeat those same steps to achieve this look on your unfished wooden spindles. The spindles should already come with screws adhered to the end to make for an easy build when the time comes to put it together.

*Note: I purchased these spindles from Home Depot, but they were a little longer than I wanted, so I sawed the ends off to make them shorter.

Allow your pieces to dry for at least an hour before screwing your spindles into the bottom of the round plaque. Once dry, flip your round plaque over, mark and measure where your spindles will go and then drill holes in those places. Be careful not to drill all the way through your piece – you just want to drill far enough into it that you can easily screw in the spindles. Dab a small amount of wood glue onto the ends of the spindle where the screws are located and then screw into your wood plaque until secure.

Once you are finished, flip that beauty over and decorate it with your favorite home décor items or you could even gift it to someone you love! I have no idea where mine is going just yet, but even once I find a home for it, it will probably make its way around to each room in the house because I change things around so much.

If you have any questions that you don’t find the answers to here, feel free to shoot me an email! And of course, be sure to subscribe to my blog for future DIY blog posts. My site is under construction right now, but you can navigate through the pages or search for anything in particular you’re looking for!