Using a tiered tray with your home decor can allow you to display your seasonal or holiday trinkets in a really cute and non-cluttered fashion. This DIY tiered tray uses a handful of small unfinished wood finds to stack and create a fun tiered tray.
This is a great DIY home decor beginner woodworking project, that doesn’t actually include any power tools.
Related: 3 DIY Farmhouse Trays to Make
DIY Tiered Tray
Tiered trays are super popular among farmhouse decor enthusiasts. They are great for functionality or simply for home decor.
I like to decorate mine with seasonal or holiday items, and have also used it in the kitchen to house spices and oils near my stove.
Browse the unfinished wood project aisle in your local craft store such as Michaels or Hobby Lobby and play around with the stacking to get a design that will best fit you needs.
I went with an oval base rather than a traditional round because I didn’t want it to stick out quite as far on my kitchen counter and really wanted the height.
What you need to make the DIY tiered tray
- 2 unfinished wood rounds, one bigger than the other
- an unfinished wooden candlestick
- wooden beads or wheels for feet
- a wooden finial
- hot glue
- wood stain (I used Rustoleum Early American)
How to make the tiered tray
Begin by messing around with the placement of all the pieces to get the look that you like.
I like to mark each piece with a pencil so that I can find the center of the rounds when glueing.
If hot glue doesn’t work well for the pieces that you have chosen, try E600 glue instead and give lots of drying time before staining.
Assemble the tray
Begin by adding wooden beads or toy wheels to the large wooden round with hot glue to serve as feet.
Find something with a flat bottom, if there is any wiggle room once these are on and the glue is hard, sand them down until the base feels secure.
Glue the candlestick to the middle of the bottom round and let dry.
Glue the smaller round to the top of the candle stick and let dry.
Then, add the finial to the middle of the top round and let dry.
I know I repeated ‘let dry’ a lot here, but please don’t skip this step! This will also help you troubleshoot your glue and decide if you need to try a different one instead before the whole piece comes crashing down.
TIP: If your glue is being stubborn and really doesn’t want to hold, buff the area of wood you are glueing with a piece of sandpaper so give it something to hold to.
Once the entire tiered tray is assembled and is dry. Stain it!
Applying stain to the tray
To apply the stain, use a foam brush and then wipe the stain with an old rag or t-shirt to buff.
Rub with the grain of your wood pieces, and watch the beautiful grooves really pop! All of a sudden your basic unfinished wood pieces will really look lovely.
Ta-da! Your DIY tiered tray is complete!
Check out our DIY small serving tray and DIY round single tray with handles as well.
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