How to Build a Tiered Tray Stand for Kitchen

Do you have a tiered tray in your kitchen?

My husband and I built our house 15+ years ago and we made sure to include plenty of countertop space in the kitchen. The kitchen counters, while spacey, still always manage to become a catch-all for smaller items, which can make any place in your home, not just your countertops, look messy. So, I had been wanting a tiered tray stand for my kitchen with enough space for the items I needed to get off of the counter, but not so big that it took up that valuable countertop real estate that I was trying to reclaim.  The 3 tier trays that I usually find are round and often don’t have a lot of room on them.

One day I found a beaded wood tray at Michael’s, which unfortunately is not available anymore.

But I did find this oval beaded set of 2 which is similar from Amazon. I needed two even though they were the same size. I thought it could work for what I wanted. So now that I had my tray bases, all that was left was to find something for the center post to join the two pieces together.

Wood salvage piece looked like it would work

This wood salvage piece, found at a local salvage shop, looked like it could work.

Hubby was able to cut it down and drill holes in the trays and put it together for me. We made sure there was plenty of height between the trays by using the items I knew I wanted to store on the tray as a guide.

The white wash finish needed to be darker

The trays had a white washed finish which did not match the dark wood of the salvage post piece. In order to make this piece look cohesive, I lightly rubbed the stain all over the two trays using Old Masters gel stain in mahogany and I tried to make the whole piece a bit darker. It did not have to match, but I needed to cover over the white wash finish.

I put the stand in the  corner of my kitchen counter. I think it works well here and I decorated it with some blue and white canisters, a teapot and a cute sheep. 

Put in corner of countertop and holds an assortment of blue and white items

On the bottom of the stand I added some small felt pads to prevent it from scratching my countertop.

So, tell me what you think! Would you try to make something like this? If so, where would you put it and how would you use it?

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