DIY Tiered Tray From Discarded Wood Boxes

Do you cringe to see someone throw an item in the dumpster when you know it could be made into something useful?

Yeah, me too.

That is how twelve of these little wooden display boxes came to be in my craft room stash and have now been reimaged as a DIY Tiered Tray.

This post contains affiliate links which help to support this blog at no additional cost to you if you were to purchase anything through these links.

 

 

This post is part of the Sustainable Pinterest Challenge.  This month’s theme is Upcycle.

 

Below is a list of the creative bloggers participating this month.  Be sure to read to the end of this post to see the link for each upcycled project.

 

Julie | Sum of their Stories

Gail | Purple Hues and Me

Julie | Treasures Made From Yarn

Lydia | Life Beyond the Kitchen

Terri | A Good Life

Ann | The Apple Street Cottage

T’onna | Sew Crafty Crochet

Donna | Modern on Monticello

Allyson | Southern Sunflowers

Mel | Decor Craft Design

 

 

For about 6 years now, I have worked in a neighbor’s Christmas store in Pigeon Forge during the busy Fall and Christmas seasons.  It is a fun job, especially if you love Christmas decorations.  A couple of year’s ago, one of the managers was unpacking some boxes of tiny stuffed bears that came with their own little wooden display box for every 12 bears.  She was putting all the bears in a basket so she didn’t intend to keep the display boxes.

 

 

I just couldn’t stand the idea of throwing them in the dumpster so I brought them home.  I have used them as risers on a mantel display, made trinket trays out of them, used them for display boxes at my daughter’s wedding, and even used them on a design project as shelf fillers.

Did I happen to mention there were about 12 of these little shallow wood boxes in all?  Each box has the words “You’ve Gotta Have It” stamped on one side.  I guess that is a marketing ploy for the little bears.  

 

 

 

These shallow little boxes are 8″ x 7 1/4″ and only 1 1/4″ deep. Since this is not exactly a project that you can get the exact same supplies to duplicate, I did a quick search on Amazon for similar supplies.

 

Yes, there were originally twelve little boxes to figure out how to reuse them.  Over time I have finally dwindled that number down to just 4, without any real idea what kind of project to make next to get them out of my craft room stash.

Until I found some inspiration on Pinterest.

This post is part of the monthly Sustainable Pinterest Challenge and the theme this month is Makeover and I found the inspiration for the project with this pin.

These little shallow boxes are perfect for a DIY Tiered Tray Makeover.

 

 

I found a small 6′ raw wood candlestick and a small wood finial at Hobby Lobby to use for the center divider of the tier tray and for a decorative top. 

To attach the wood candlestick and wood finial, you will need to find the center dot of the interior of each shallow wooden box and the center dot underneath the top box.  I did this with a ruler and marked the center with a pencil mark.

Since I was working with raw wood, I used wood glue to attach the candlestick and the finial on the center marks.  The candlestick had a gold metal cup to hold the candle and that was removed and discarded before adding any glue to the candlestick.

 

Since the little boxes had the stamped message on one side, I decided to paint the entire thing in white acrylic paint.  Once the 3 layers of paint had dried overnight, I applied several coats of Rust-Oleum Triple Thick Gloss Glaze over the entire little tiered tray.

 

 

This is a project that I am thrilled with the outcome and glad I finally got it done. Since I don’t really owe those adorable little trinket items used to decorate tiered trays, at least not yet anyway, I just decorated it these photos with what I already had in my home.

The final little detail I added were some wood beads as feet for the tray.  It just looked better with feet than without.

 

 

A shopping adventure is in my future so I can have so much fun each season with this little tiered tray.

 

 

If you are wondering what I did with the last two boxes?  I added beads and some old cabinet knobs to the bottom of each to make them into some small trinket trays, but unfortunately I ran out of time to get them painted for this post.  Maybe I will update the post when I get them done.

For now, I invite you to visit the other blogger’s posts below and enjoy even more creative upcycled projects.

 

 

Hugs,

Exodus 14:14 “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”