DIY Wood Produce Stand

Today my friend Tracy is sharing a super creative project with you, along with an easy to follow tutorial.  This is on my to-do list, it’s so cute, you are going to want one of these DIY Product Stands in your kitchen.  

Hi! I am so honored to be sharing with all of you Creative Rambling readers, does that make us all Creative Ramblers? I’m Tracy from At Home with Sweet T, where I blog and share my love of DIY, crafts, and just having creative fun while being frugal. For example, my most popular post is a old popcorn tin that I spray painted and made into a Bread Tin, go figure. Lately, I’ve been learning how to use power tools and I’m kinda becoming obsessed with them and can’t stop thinking of bigger project to use even more power tools. Speaking of power tools, let me share my DIY Produce Stand. Grab some sweet tea and your power tools and let’s DIY together! Did I mention I’m addicted to sweet tea?
This all started when I started snooping around my parent’s garage and I spotted these pot holders for railings. They had 3 of these guys that had never been used and still had the price tag on them. Of course I asked if I could have them oh so sweetly as I was already headed to put them in the car. The pot holders are wrought iron with a vinyl coating.

Material List:

One 8 ft 1×3 board

One 1 1/2 inch diameter dowel rod (such as a closet rod)

3 pot holders

screws

paint (optional)

(Note: I found a 1×3 in our scraps, you can’t buy it this size. You can cut a 1×4 or large board down or just use a 1×4 for this project.

Tool list:

Saw

drill

forstner bit same size as dowel

square

tape measure

pencil

clamps

router (optional)

Cut list:

Two pieces both 35.5 inches.

Two pieces 12.5 inches.

Cut dowel into three 10 inch sections

Ok, let’s begin. Grab your board, measure and mark 35. 5 inches with your tape measure and square. Line up your saw on your cut line then firmly hold your square against the board and against the saw’s guide foot for a straight cut. Repeat this to cut a second piece 35.5 inches and two pieces at 12.5 inches.

Cut the dowel into 10 inch sections using the saw and square as your guide.

This square is a pretty handy tool. You can use it to mark a line down the center of your board too. Find the notch at appropriate measurement, place your pencil in the notch and slowly pull the square down the board making sure the edge of the square stays against the edge of your board. We need to mark the center of both side pieces to know where to drill the holes for the dowels. Using the square again and your tape measure mark 1 inch from the top of the board, which is where the top of the hole will be for the first rung. From that first mark measure down 1 1/2 inch to mark the bottom of the hole, measure and make a 3rd mark in the center of those 2 marks. This is important to find the center for drilling the holes.

You won’t be drilling holes all the way through the boards. Before you drill you should place the forstner bit next to the side of the board to decide where on the bit you should stop drilling. Place the tip of the bit on the cross marks you made and drill out 3 holes on each side piece.

See, I didn’t go all the way through. The indention in the middle of the hole from the bit is a good way to transfer the center mark to the other side.

Using a small drill bit, drill through that center indention all all of the holes. This will leave you a pilot hole for your screws when you assemble it all together.

 

This step is completely optional. I decided to take the router to all of the edges using a 1/8 inch round over bit. This mostly smoothed over the sharp edges.

Before assembling, sand down all of the pieces.

To assemble, lay one side piece flat with the holes up. Place the dowels into the holes. Then place the other side piece on top and line up the dowels into those holes. Now clamp it all together to free up your hands and hold everything together tightly.

In all of the pilot holes you made earlier add screws through the side pieces into the dowels.

To add the feet, find and mark the center of each “foot.” Also mark the center of the outside of each side piece near the bottom. Line up these marks and make sure the bottom of the foot is flush with the side piece. Clamp to hold the foot together while you add screws. Do the same for both sides.

Done! Well the building part is done. I opted to spray paint my produce stand white. You could leave it as is, stain it or paint it any color you like.

Add your baskets, fill with fruits and veggies. You could add basket liners or flower pots to keep smaller items from falling out.

I think it fits in nicely in our kitchen right by the Menu board and Command Center.

Well, Creative Ramblers (It’s totally a thing now, go with it) I hope you enjoyed my first post and project here on Creative Ramblings. I’m looking forward to sharing more with you in the upcoming months. Until then you can visit me on my blog, At Home with Sweet T.

-Tracy