How to make a wood pedestal tray - Farmhouse Christmas

Wood pedestal tray, footed tray, table style tray, whatever you call them, these pretty farmhouse style risers are useful in so many ways and are fabulous for making your décor stand out. Style them up as table centrepieces for parties or weddings. Use them as dessert or drink stands. Turn one into a coffee station for your kitchen, or even a cool desk accessory for your office. Wood pedestal trays are really inexpensive if you 'do it yourself'.

This DIY is so easy, you could have it finished in one day. (Unless you are filming and taking photos of the process, then it will probably take you two!) I wanted to make a step-by-step tutorial of the process to make it easier for you!

A QUICK REMINDER: When attempting any DIY project, please take care to undertake the necessary safety precautions. You should always follow the manufacturer’s safety recommendations when using any product or tool. When following my instructions for a DIY project, you are doing so at your own risk.

THE DIY CHALLENGE

I joined up with some amazing bloggers for this DIY challenge. The brief was to build a wood pedestal tray from scratch and style it for the holidays.

For me, the challenge was not in the actual building of it but in deciding how to style it but we'll get to that later.

Are you thinking of building a farmhouse style riser or are you just looking for ideas to style it for the holidays? Either way, I've got you covered. This is my interpretation of a footed tray but don't forget to check out all my friend's posts for more amazing inspiration. (See below for more details).

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What is a pedestal tray?

It's basically a tray on legs! You could make a wood pedestal tray by adding legs to a tray you already have or even by transforming a cutting board into a footed tray. You can make them in any length you want. I wanted my pedestal tray to display Christmas décor as a centrepiece on my table and that's why I made it so long. You could just as easily make a smaller version if you don't need it to be as long as mine.

For this challenge, the idea was to make a wood pedestal tray from scratch and it was much easier than I thought it would be.

Because this footed tray turned out to be so simple to make, it's given me the confidence to try more woodworking projects in the future!

After you've read this post, you will also be able to make one of these pretty footed trays for yourself because I'm giving you the step-by-step tutorial of the process!

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How to distress wood

If you are using new store-bought wood to make this pedestal tray then you might want to distress it a bit first so it doesn't look too new.

I had fun jumping up and down on my wood pretending to be a snowboarder haha!

I just put the wood down on our gravel driveway and literally jumped all over it!

I've seen some people hit the wood with a hammer or scratch it with nails and chains. All I did was jump up and down on it and it had a lightly distressed look afterwards.

Do whatever you want to the wood, I mean, it's supposed to look distressed so you can't spoil it, can you?

Materials

• Wood L=80cm/31" W=20cm/8" D=2cm/0.8"
• Wood trim 2x L=80cm/31" 1cm/0.40" thick
• Wood trim 2x L=18cm/7" 1cm/0.40" thick
• Wood finials x 4
• Dowel (optional)
• Wood Glue
• Woodstain | USA | EU |
• clear wax
• white wax
• Chalk paint

Tools

• Googles
• Sanding mask
• Sandpaper or
• Electric sander
• Paintbrush
• Wood Saw
• Pencil

Step 1 Cut the wood trim

The trim I bought was so thin that you could easily use a hand saw to cut the pieces. I used a circular cutting saw because it was just sitting there and I'm all about making my life easier!

Cut two long pieces for each long side, the length of the base. Then cut two pieces for the short sides taking into account the size of the trim on the long sides. The short pieces will fit inside the longer pieces.

Step 2 Sand

Give all the pieces a light sanding with 120-grade sandpaper. Wipe the pieces down with a damp cloth or use a tack to clean away the sanding dust.

Step 3 Stain

If your wood is as light as mine was, it's a good idea to stain it first. We're going to be distressing the paint later and it's nice to have a darker colour showing through the paint. I loved the look of the bathroom stool I made a while ago and I wanted to achieve a similar finish on my pedestal tray so I just followed the same steps.

Give all the wood pieces two coats of wood stain, I used a walnut coloured stain for this (see the materials list above for the details). This is a good time to go and get lunch because you need to wait for the stain to dry.

Step 4 Paint

Once the wood stain is dry (about one hour), paint the pieces with whichever colour paint you want your pedestal tray to be. I used Rustoleum Chalk Paint in Antique White. After about twenty minutes, you can give the pieces a second coat – yup, chalk paint is very quick to dry!

Step 5 Distress the paint

I started off sanding by hand but then switched to my handy palm sander. Be warned, chalk paint creates a lot of dust when you are sanding it so don't forget to wear your mask and make sure you are outside when you do this step. Something crazy came over me when I was working on my media stand makeover and I started sanding the chalk paint inside. Take a look at that post, if you want to see the result – oops!

Step 6 Wax and buff

Use a wax brush or cloth to add a layer of clear wax over the top of the paint. Take a look at my coffee table makeover if you need a detailed tutorial on how to use chalk paint wax on furniture.

I added a layer of white wax over the top of the clear wax.

Step 7 Assemble the tray

Here's where the magic happens.

Use some wood glue to glue all the pieces of your trim to the pedestal tray base.

If you have them, it's a good idea to tighten clamps to the wood pieces after glueing. My wood glue only needed five minutes to dry so because I only had two clamps, I attached each section of the trim separately.

Step 8 Attach the legs

I used curtain pole finials for the legs. The finials were hollow inside and I was worried that there would not be enough surface wood on them to glue them to the base of the pedestal tray.

I had some dowelling leftover from another project and decided to cut some short lengths to fit inside the finials. I used wood glue to fix them in place inside the finials.

If you can't get finials you could just use large wooden ball knobs for legs instead. You can usually find them at the craft store. You could even make your own legs by cutting a thick piece of wood dowel or even an old spindle if you have some going spare.

Decide where on your pedestal tray you want to attach the legs. Rub some sandpaper over that area so that you have a wax-free area for glueing.

Once you are ready to attach the legs, measure 1cm in from the corner of the pedestal tray base on both sides.

Draw a circle around the legs so you know where you need to attach them.

Apply wood glue to the legs and fix them to the base of the pedestal tray. Use a clamp to press them tightly to the wood and leave them to dry.

Remove the clamps and attach small round furniture pads to the bottom of the feet to prevent them from scratching your table. You can also buy ready-made, sticky-back felt buttons for furniture.

Pedestal tray assembly finished

Now you have your very own display tray on legs! Wasn't that an easy DIY? The best bit is, you can use your footed tray all through the year for seasonal displays. See below for how I styled my pedestal tray for Christmas.

How can you use a pedestal tray?

Here are a few ideas on how to use your footed tray around the house:

• Wood pedestal trays make great plant stands. Use them to elevate plants on shelves. You could even add some wheels instead of legs so you can more easily move your plants around.
• Use them to hold condiments on your kitchen counter.
• Wood pedestal trays look great as farmhouse risers and would be perfect for any farmhouse buffet.
• Decorate your tray with seasonal displays in your kitchen.
• Add handles on each side instead of wood trim.
• Footed trays are perfect for adding extra height to wedding and birthday party table set-ups.
• Your wood pedestal tray would make a useful coffee table centrepiece. Remotes and other small items can be hidden out of sight underneath, and essentials or decor can be displayed on top.
• Wood pedestal trays make fabulous desk risers for accessories or even to elevate your monitor if you make it wide enough.

DIY Pedestal trays are extremely customizable and you can make them, to match your aesthetic and style.

Decorating a Pedestal Tray for Christmas

Here's how I decorated my wood pedestal tray for Christmas.

You can find lovely Christmas tree candles here.

I added some silver baubles for a bit of sparkle!

I added lots of natural Christmas decor. You can find gorgeous natural decor here.

Below, you can see my table with lovely wood pedestal tray all set for Christmas!

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Where to buy online

If you love the look of these lovely footed trays but don't want to make your own, here are a few that you can buy online:

Chunky Farmhouse Riser

Chippy Farmhouse Pedestal Tray

These beautiful Farmhouse Risers with Cow motive (very pretty)

More wood pedestal tray Inspiration from the Blogger DIY Challenge participants!

Want to see more lovely pedestal trays and gorgeous Christmas styling? Well then, that's great because you are in for a treat.

Below, you will find links to the posts from all my blogger friends who took part in this challenge. Click the links to go straight to their posts. ENJOY!

American School of Charm - How to Use Scandinavian Decor as Holiday Table Inspiration

Shop At Blu - How to make a table riser

MTB Home Living - How to build a farmhouse footed tray

From Farmhouse To Florida - Quick easy way to make a footed tray

The Ponds Farmhouse - Easy to make DIY Farmhouse table riser

Mrs Coleman - How to make a footed tray the super easy way

J Dubby Design - DIY unique footed tray for holiday decor and entertaining

Modern On Monticello - DIY wood footed tray

Cottage on Bunker Hill - Christmas Tray DIY

Cottage In The Mitten - How to make a footed tray

Sydney & Co - DIY Decorative tray

Sonya Burgess - How to use scrap wood to make a pedestal tray

Feet under my table

Faith and Farmhouse - How to make an easy footed tray

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These posts are good too!

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