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October 29, 2020 · 5 Comments

DIY Rope Tray

DIY· Thrifty Thursday

Make a DIY Rope Tray Using An Old Pizza Pan

Hey there and welcome to another fun diy project inspired by Thrifty Thursday! This diy rope tray was simple and fun to create on a dollar store budget.

Every month I join up with a group of amazing women to bring inexpensive diy home decor ideas to you! This post is part of our Less Is More Thrifty Thursday series. Please make sure to check out their amazing projects at the end of this diy tutorial. Thanks!

Rope Tray Inspiration

As I’m sure you know, I’m a fan of the the rustic design style. Distressed woods, jute rope, vintage decor, etc. I also am always looking at everyday objects with a new eye. Take for example, my scratched up pizza pan. There comes a point when you have to cave in and replace your pans.

I’ve also been admiring textured wall decor such as macrame, woven baskets, and jute trays. That’s when I decided to try and create my own. But I wanted it to have a sturdy base. Like an old pizza pan perhaps.

Repurpose an old pizza pan into a beautiful and trendy diy rope tray. This easy project requires a pizza pan, 4 packages of jute rope, and a hot glue gun. A great gift idea for Christmas! Ful tutorial on the blog. - the Inspired Decorator

Supplies for DIY Tray

The supply list is pretty simple for this one!

  • 1x 12″diameter pizza pan
  • 4x Jute rope bundles from Dollarama (18m or 58.8ft)
  • Hot Glue
  • Sharpie
The supplies required to make a diy rope tray are 1 old pizza pan, 18m or 58 ft of jute rope, and a hot glue gun.

Tutorial For DIY Jute Rope Serving Tray

Step 1

As usual, it’s better if you start with a clean surface. I gave my pizza pan a scrubbing to get as much oil and grease residue off it as possible. This was done to make sure the hot glue would stick to the pan without any issues.

Clean your old pizza pan as best as you can to get rid of grease residue.

Step 2

Use a ruler to find the center of your pizza pan and mark it with a sharpie. I didn’t take a picture of this step. So measure across the length of your pan to find the center, and mark it with a dot. Then spin your pan 45 degrees and do that again from the new side, measuring across your pan. Do this a few times across different parts of your pan until you have a consistent dot in the center of your pan. Otherwise, at the end of your project, your rope won’t end on a single length and you’ll need to get creative to make it look even on all sides.

Step 3

Add hot glue along one end of your jute rope and curled it in on itself to form the center of the spiral. You can hold it in place between your fingers as you let it cool. I figured starting out with a spiral knot already pre-formed for the center of your pan would make attaching it easier than trying to form the spiral as you glue it to the pan.

Step 1: Add hot glue along one end of your jute rope and curl it in on itself to create the center of the spiral for your rope tray.

Step 4

Add a dollop of glue on the center point of your pan and attach your rope spiral knot.

Step 4: Add a dollop of glue to the center of your pizza pan and attach your rope spiral.

Step 5

Now you keep going around in a spiral with your rope, adding glue to the pan about every 2 inches, and placing your rope tightly against the first spiral. Keep going until you run out of rope.

Step 5: Keep going tightly around your original spiral with the extra length of rope. Glue in place ever 1-2 inches.
Keep working in a tight formation as your expand your spiral outwards on your diy rope tray.

Step 6

When you come to the end of your rope, make sure the glue the rope end to the pan. Add some extra hot glue along the cut ends and jam your new rope end right into the end of the first rope as tightly as you can to try and get a continuous rope look. Believe me, once your pan is completely covered in rope, this joint will blend in.

Now you can continue on with your spiral.

Step 6: When you come to the end of your rope, add more hot glue on the end and jam the next piece of rope up tight to it so that it appears continuous.

Step 7

At some point you are going to hit the rim of your pan. I continued wrapping the rope over top of the rim, and fit 3 spirals tightly together on the rim. It created more depth to the tray. It’s okay for the outer edge of the rope to slightly overhang the pan. This will help cover the joints where you add handles.

Step 7: When you hit the rim of your pan, overlap onto the rim and add more rows until the top surface of your diy rope tray is completely covered.

Step 8

Now that your pan is covered you need to cut off the extra rope. But you don’t want the exposed cut end to be an eyesore! You’ll fix this by slightly turning the cut end underneath the raised pan lip and glueing the cut ends on the back of the pan. This is also where I chose to place a handle. So it looks like the rope turns into the handle.

Step 8: When the surface of your rope serving tray is covered in jute rope, cut off the excess and hot glue underneath the rim of the pizza pan.

Step 9

To create the handles, you’ll need to cut two lengths of rope, approximately 8″ long.

Step 9: Create two rope handles that are 8" long.

Hot glue one end of the rope handle on the back of the pan where your rope tray design ended.

Step 10: Hot glue the rope tray handles to the back of the pizza pan.

Then spread out your handle and attached the other end a few inches further along the pan, also hot glueing it to the back of the pan.

A look at how a handle is glued to the back of the serving tray.

On the opposite side of the pan, glue the handle ends on the back of the pan directly across from where you glued the first handle ends. This is purely for symmetry.

In the end you should have a rope tray that looks something like this:

The finished result of wrapping jute rope around on an old pizza pan to create a diy rope serving tray.

Dress it up an and display it however you want! You can use it as a serving tray…

Use your new diy rope tray as a serving tray. The solid metal pizza pan that was used for the base will keep it sturdy.

Or stand it upright as a beautifully textured wall art! This would be great propped up on a mantel too!

Use your rope tray as home decor and prop it up on a mantel or hang it on a wall.

Now it’s time to appreciate your hard work and beautiful rope tray! I hope you found this tutorial easy to follow and inspiring! Do you plan to do anything extra with your tray? A fun color perhaps?

Sara-Lynn, The Inspired Decorator

Please take the time to check out these amazing projects by my blog friends in our Less Is More series!

Windmill & Protea: Create a Hobnail Table Lamp

Bloom In The Black: Make DIY Leather Coasters

Practical Whimsy Designs: Updated Wooden Crate

The Lived-In Look: DIY Plaster Vase

A Well-Purposed Woman: Easy Way to Make a Chalkboard

One Thousand Oaks: Create a Vintage Halloween Sign

Pin The DIY Rope Tray For Later

Repurpose an old pizza pan into a beautiful and trendy diy rope tray. This easy project requires a pizza pan, 4 packages of jute rope, and a hot glue gun. A great gift idea for Christmas! Full tutorial on the blog. - the Inspired Decorator
Repurpose an old pizza pan into a beautiful and trendy diy rope tray. This easy project requires a pizza pan, 4 packages of jute rope, and a hot glue gun. A great gift idea for Christmas! The full tutorial is on the blog. - the Inspired Decorator
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Erin says

    November 11, 2020 at 2:15 PM

    This is so beautiful! This looks so elegant. I never would have thought it was a pizza tin before you transformed it.

    Reply
  2. Martina says

    October 30, 2020 at 5:53 AM

    This is such a genius idea Sara! I need to make this for my parents nautical themed living room! Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    • Sara-Lynn Houk says

      October 30, 2020 at 10:53 PM

      Oh that would be perfect for a nautical themed room!

      Reply
  3. Brianna says

    October 29, 2020 at 7:40 AM

    This is such a clever project! I would never have guessed it was made from a pizza pan!!! So pretty.

    Reply
    • Sara-Lynn Houk says

      October 30, 2020 at 10:53 PM

      Thank you! I’m so happy with how it turned out! And it was really simple to make

      Reply

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