How 2 Dollar Tree Items And Spray Paint Create An Elegant Countertop Tray In 30 Minutes

While there are plenty of stylish organizers and display shelves you can buy to turn your countertops from open-air junk drawers into stylish surfaces, you can also DIY an elegant display riser or service tray with items from Dollar Tree for less than $5. YouTuber Loli Ds Creations demonstrated this easy craft using a hanging planter and a painted pizza pan.

For this riser, this crafter used a Garden Collection hanging wire basket ($1.50) and a 16-inch pizza pan ($1.25) from Dollar Tree. But you could use similar equipment from another store, like a thrift store, or supplies that you already have. You'll want a strong glue, like E6000 and some tinsnips or sturdy wire cutters. If you wish to paint the tray — which the YouTuber does — use a spray paint designed to work on metal, like those from Rust-Oleum.

The reason this craft works is because — inverted — the wire planter basket serves as a sturdy base on which to set and raise the tray. It's a streamlined, minimalist display, and looks stylish in a variety of settings. Loli Ds Creations uses her finished product as a decorative stand for flower pots and a candle, but you could use it as part of an organizing system, maximizing kitchen counter space by stacking plates or arranging teacups on the riser. If you don't paint the pizza tray, it could work as a much easier DIY cake stand, veggie tray for parties, or pizza stand. If you do paint it and wish to serve food, use it instead as a sort of pedestal on which to set a food-friendly dish.

Much like the Dollar Tree DIY for organizing condiments, the goal is to make your display stand look like a unified piece, and not a hanging basket with a tray glued on it. First, remove any tags, loose wires, or ties from the hanging basket, as well as the packaging, paper, and glue from the pizza tray. Give them a quick cleaning with soap and water if needed. The chains unclip from the basket, and you'll want to snip off the loops the chains clip to. According to the YouTuber, strong tinsnips will work faster and easier than small wire cutters.

If you wish to paint the pizza tray to match your aesthetic (and disguise the fact that it's a pizza tray), now's the time. The YouTuber gave hers two coats of spray paint. Invert the basket and make certain it sits flat. Then run lines of glue along the top of the wire frame elements where they will make contact with the tray. Center and set the tray on top of the frame, set something on top for weight, and let it dry. That's it!

While the pizza pan works wonderfully for this DIY, you needn't feel limited to it. Dollar Tree carries a number of attractive trays and platters that could work instead. A plastic oval crystal-cut platter ($2) adds texture and a different shape to the riser's surface, for example. Or decorate the tray by affixing stamped metal lace ribbon trim around the outside. Customizing a popular DIY really does make it your own.