DIY Sisal Tray from an Old Cookie Sheet

So I’m browsing the aisles of Lowe’s -my new favorite pasttime…it’s inching its way up to Target as my Favorite Place on Earth – ok I take that back, have you BEEN to Target lately?!!! Chevron striped drum shades?! umm, YES PLEASE! Just when I thought that place couldn’t get any better…Ok, off topic…

Back to Lowe’s…I was there picking up some wood for a project and decided to drag my poor kids around a little while while Momma had a little fun…and I randomly spotted some sisal rope. SISAL ROPE!, I thought, or actually I think I said it out loud (I do that when I get excited in a store – you should have SEEN me when I spotted the chevron lamp shades! If my kids were older, I would be a total embarrassment to them. I’m sure that day’s not too far off in the future). I grabbed it, not even sure why, but I knew I’d find something to do with it. Plus, it was only $6 or something, so why not?! Then, when I got home, it hit me – I have this thing obsession with using old items around the house and giving them a new purpose – upcycling, as my Nate (Berkus) always calls it. I have a disgusting old cookie sheet – you know, the ones that feel like you’re ingesting toxins just by looking at it? In my defense, it’s buried under the “better” ones (although they’re not all that much better at the moment), and we never use it. But for some reason I hadn’t tossed it yet. Do you see where I’m going with this!?! Sisal rope + hot glue + cookie sheet = Sisal rope tray!

Check it out:

That was once this:

Yowza. Told you. You can feel the toxins, right? Anyone like a little rust in their cookies?
Here’s how I did it.
Gather your materials – the nasty cookie sheet, your glue gun (and 897 refill sticks – ok, slight exaggeration, but you do use up a lot of glue for this), and this sisal rope:

Then I cut a bunch of strips to the length of the sheet and glued them on. Here’s a tip – I glued a little section at a time, instead of one long strip of glue, because by the time I laid the end of the rope down, that glue was pretty much dry! So dab a little, lay it down, dab a little, lay some more down, you get the point;)

Then, once you’re done all of those, start at a corner and do the sides:

With the sides, I didn’t cut strips. I used one giant piece – just kept wrapping and gluing it all around, like in the picture above.

So the inside is complete, and I cut the rope. Now time to do the edges. I picked a starting point and just kept on – you guessed it – wrapping and gluing, wrapping and gluing…

Then you can turn it upside down at this point, to make it a little easier on yourself:

I ran out of rope just at the very end, so I didn’t do the bottom. I think I’ll probably pick up some more and do it though, just to make it totally complete, and no sign of metal cookie sheet to be found;) Not that people tend to come over and pick up my trays a lot, but I’ll know. 😉

And that’s it!

I’m not sure if I’ll put it on my coffee table (because I do already have that $2 Coffee Table Tray on there, or maybe it’ll be my summer tray, since the rope gives it sort of a nautical/beachy feel, don’t you think?). I was also thinking of using it in my master bedroom, on my ginormous dresser. It’d be good for odds and ends, like my jewelry dish, some books and a candle or mug filled with flowers. Oh wait, did I say candle, books, and flowers? More like receipts, loose change, and 437 ponytail holders and bobby pins, maybe a couple old tissues, some chap stick. ‘Cuz that’s what’s on there right now…Oh, and dust. Can’t forget the dust.

I’d love to be one of those houses that doesn’t have our remotes on display, but let’s be honest. It is nice to have a place to put them, and always know where they are;) Not the loveliest decor, but when it’s 6am and your 2 year old wants his Backyardigans, you will wanna stab yourself in the face if those remotes have gone missing. Trust me. Life’s a lot more pleasant when you get that TV going and can snooze for another 23 minutes (yes, I know the exact length of the show. Been doing this parenting thing for going on 6 years now;) Someday I’ll have a beautiful tray with lovely fresh flowers and actual books, that I actually READ, but now it’s more like a remotes-and-magazines world I live in…

Did you notice the coasters on there from a few posts back? Just L-O-V-E them!

I’m really glad I made the ‘oops’ of cutting my strips a little uneven in the beginning, because it made me repeat the loop around the sides several times (to hide the shorter ends) and I like the way all those layers turned out. And that I kept one continuous rope going around it, instead of cutting lots of strips – makes the corners look pretty cool (I think).

Funny, the entire time I was working on this, I didn’t know if it was going to be a total WIN or total FAIL. I mean, literally, I was working on the final pieces and still didn’t know how it was all going to look in the end! But I’m pretty happy about it, plus I’ve got a little more room in my cookie sheet drawer AND I’m not poisoning my family. Always a good thing.

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