Tiered Tray From Thrifted Plates

Supplies Needed:

• 3 Thrift­ed Plates
• Spin­dles
• Knob
• E6000 Adhe­sive
• Spray paint

I have always want­ed a rea­son to buy all the pret­ty lit­tle plates from the thrift store or yard sales. I have want­ed one of those beau­ti­ful tiered farm­house trays for what seems like for­ev­er but could nev­er bring myself to spend the mon­ey. There’s also my weird obses­sion with search­ing for old and beau­ti­ful plates so real­ly this project was a match made in DIY heaven.

This project start­ed with a col­lec­tion of 3 plates from a local thrift store for about a quar­ter a piece. Two of them were authen­tic iron­stone, which I col­lect, and the third caught my eye because of the detail­ing along the rim. They were dingy and dusty from sit­ting on the shelf and being for­got­ten but man their shapes unique and pret­ty! I had all the heart eyes! 

Just so hap­pened, as I searched and stacked them in my cart they seemed per­fect­ly pro­por­tion­al …see what I mean, a match made in heav­en! Obvi­ous­ly they weren’t per­fect, note the chips, but for this project I did­n’t mind. Noth­ing in my house looks brand new so real­ly the chips were just a touch of life and char­ac­ter! The spin­dles and knob were junk finds from a a total­ly sep­a­rate trea­sure hunt at a local trad­ing com­pa­ny. I found them on the cheap and snatched em up for a project down the road. In case you haven’t real­ized yet…THIS is the project writ­ten in the DIY stars for their final rest­ing place. 

The next steps were all very easy! I used E6000 adhe­sive to attach the spin­dles to the plates, stack­ing and cen­ter­ing as I went. I like using this adhe­sive for projects that need a lit­tle more rein­forc­ing than a tra­di­tion­al hot glue would provide. 

This is what it looked like about halfway through. Truth­ful­ly it was super cute just like this but I my third plate was too per­fect not to go ahead and add.

Once again, after adding the third tier you could call it fin­ished, or like me, embell­ish the top with an old knob to add char­ac­ter! Note the crack­ling look in in the plate, if your on the hunt for vin­tage stoneware this is usu­al­ly a good sign that your piece is authentic.

Next up, our trusty ole friend…spray paint. Oh how you have nev­er let me down. 

Pro Tip

Spray paint your piece in a card­board box to pre­vent over spray, it also helps keep debris from stick­ing to your fresh paint.

-Kaycee

It’s amaz­ing what a few thrifty plates, adhe­sive and spray paint can do!I mean oh my good­ness, I love it even if I say so myself. I must admit I wres­tled with the idea of not paint­ing it and leav­ing every­thing orig­i­nal but I took and chance and it paid off. Just look at how the paint brings out the char­ac­ter of the pieces. The moral of the story…just go for it already!