Cake Pan Tiered Tray

I was cleaning out my kitchen cabinets for some remodeling and found three spring cake pans I have never used....like in 10 years.  I had several options:  put them back where I found them, give them away to someone that will use them, toss them, or repurpose them. Well if you know me by now you know I repurposed them.  I decided they would make a great tiered tray for my new kitchen counters!

I figured three might be a little too big and murphy's law says if I got rid of all three I would suddenly have a spring cake pan emergency. So I decided to use the large and small one and save the middle one for the next 10 years.

Supplies

• Two Cake pans
• Cheap candle stick
• Strong gorilla glue
• Hydroperoxide 
• Vinegar
• Salt
• Feet for the stand (I used rubber walker covers)

Instructions 

First I found an old candle at Joann's on clearance for $2.50.  I am sure you can find something similar at the Dollar Tree.  But the pans looked too new for me.  Not farmhouse looking enough!

After researching it, it appeared that I would need to experiment with hydroperoxide, vinegar, and salt to create some rust.  First, I took some sandpaper and tried to scuff it up a little.    

I then soaked a towel in vinegar and wrapped one of the pans in it in hopes that it would eat away at some of the coating.  After several hours of this, I didn't see any difference.  I don't even know if it did anything.

 

It pretty much looked the same after a few hours, so I put hydroperoxide and some salt in a spray bottle and began spraying the scraped areas. As you can see it immediately started to rust!!! So I sandpapered a little more in spots and edges (not too uniform so it seemed natural) and then let it sit with vinegar again for a bit and then sprayed the hydroperoxide mixture some more until I achieved the look I wanted or got tired - which ever came first.

Then I did it all over again with the second pan. Honestly, you may be able to skip the vinegar part but after putting this much time into it, I decided to just follow the same steps for good luck.  You can feel free to experiment.  Or better yet, pick up some used pans at a flea market and skip this step all together!

 

I then carefully glued the candlestick down on the center of the bottom pan and once dry, glued the top one on top.  Maybe sure you use strong glue for this.  I used gorilla glue made to work on anything.

Afterwards, I realized I didn't like it just sitting on the counter like that.  It needed legs. I was hoping to find some half wooden balls or something in the hardware section that would work as I didn't want to put a lot of effort in it.  That's when I saw those little covers for walkers - Bazinga! Sold! 

So I glued three of them on, spacing them out so the tray would balance correctly. 

Once it dried over night, I wandered around the house looking for things to put in it and bought some cheap fake greenery to fill in the gaps.  I also made a cute little sign to go in it that I will post later. Right now, this is my farmhouse every day look but I am super excited to change this up with holidays and seasons.  So watch Facebook or Instagram for new themes.