So, I have a few (or more) crafty things I like to collect. Most of them I want to organize and display, but a small apartment limits this. After researching everything from nail polish racks to shadow boxes, I decided my best course of action would be to make my own. I was inspired by a recent trip to Goodwill and hope this project inspires you to make yours too!
Materials Needed:
- tray (make sure it fits on the wall space you want to place it on)
- small pieces of wood to use as shelves (I used yard sticks from the local hardware store)
- pencil or pen
- paint of your choice (spray paint is the easiest and fastest!)
- paint brush (if not using spray paint)
- sandpaper (optional, depending on the material of your tray)
- wood glue (I used Gorilla Glue)
- saw or scrap knife to cut thin wood with
- binder clips
- level
- 4 long screws
- screwdriver drill
Step 1:
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| Going to town with gold paint! |
Step 2:
Once your paint is dry and you have a nice coating, take your wood pieces, a pencil or pen for marking and saw or sharp knife (I used a serrated knife since I didn’t have a saw). I went to my local hardware store and found wood yard sticks to use as my shelves. They were a $1 each and the best material I found at a city hardware store. Since they are about an inch tall and one of my trays is deeper, I will be gluing two together to make a deeper shelf. Go with whatever you have available!
Before cutting your wood, decide how you would like to layout your shelves. On the tray pictured right, I measured how tall I would like to have each shelf and did standard shelves across. On the tray on the left, I wanted a more interesting layout so I played with laying the shelves different directions.
Once you have your layout decided, measure your piece of wood and cut.
Step 3:
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| The magic of making shelves |
Once the glue is dry, paint the shelves to match the tray. I did two thick coats of paint since I needed to cover the numbers and red lettering from the yard stick. I did not need to sandpaper since there was no coating on these.
Step 4:
Once your paint is dry, it’s time to build (finally!). Apply glue to the edges of your shelves and place on your tray. I used binder clips to hold the shelves in place while they dried. Since binder clips are smaller, they were easier to work with. Also apply wood pieces to the handles on the side if you are doing this.
You will probably need to adjust and measure while you glue to make sure the shelves are level and fit correctly. Also, be sure to check on your shelves as they are drying to make sure they didn’t move or fall over.
Step 5:
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| Drill, baby, drill! |
Take 4 screws and your drill. One of my trays was actually a lap tray so there were legs folded underneath that I decided not to remove. I didn’t want the screws to hit them when I drilled so I marked where my screws should go. Before I screwed it to the wall, I drilled the screws slightly in to make it easier.
Place your finished tray on your wall with a level on top. Once it looks level, drill into the wall.
Step 6:
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| !!!!!!!!!!! |
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| Glitter heaven |
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| Random stamps to look at all day |
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