I keep on seeing the most beautiful things from Pottery Barn popping up in my Pinterest feed. Like their wine barrel top tray. Ahhh man it’s so pretty. Unfortunately, they don’t ship to South Africa. In fact, we can’t even get into their web site to steal with our eyes. It’s blocked for some strange reason. All I can see is a big fat blank screen with tiny letters saying “*file not found*”. Thank goodness I’ve still got Pinterest. Well if I can’t buy one, then I’ll just have to make it instead.
It’s a little more rustic than the beauty they have for sale. But I’m kinda okay with that since it used to be a broken table in a previous lifetime.
We picked this table up, along with a whole bunch of other crap awesome stuff, for an absolute bargain. Yup, besides the table and other bits and bobs, we got a whole boot-load of the most amazing pieces of solid wood, including Rhodesian Teak and Meranti. All that stuff for the astronomical sum of R100. That’s not even $10.
You guys I'm in woody heaven right now
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How to Make a Wine Barrel Top
Using a screwdriver, hammer and pliers we dismantled the table.
It was actually surprisingly easy to take apart, given how much glue whoever built the table used. I measured the width of all the slats to figure out how big the tray could be and then drew a circle on a piece of hardboard (MDF), using the highly scientific pen and string method. It works every time.
The slats were glued and screwed onto the hardboard circle and left overnight to dry. It makes it so much easier afterward to cut the slats with a jigsaw and you don’t have to join them together.
I sanded my not so perfectly round circle lightly to bring out that beautiful weathered grain. For the sides of the wine barrel, I used the table offcuts. Fortunately, Mother Nature had already done all the hard work for me and they were beautifully curved from lying outside.
All I had to worry about was how to stain the cut bits to match the other weathered pieces. Oh well, there’s nothing that oil paint thinned down with a bit of turps won’t cure.
It’s getting there, but I still needed to figure out how to make the wine barrel hoop. Is that what it’s called? The metal brace thingies that go around the barrels?
Adding the Wine Barrel Factor
Anyhows, it had me stumped for a bit until I remembered the metal tension bracing strips we used to make the pallet headboard. They would work after some rustifications. The easiest way to rustify something is to throw it in a hot fire for a bit.
RUSTIFICATIONS (verb): The act of throwing metal into a fire to rust quickly
Once they cool down completely, those bracing strips were wrapped around the wine barrel tray tightly and screwed on every few inches.
And obviously, no wine barrel top tray would look complete without some signage, courtesy of The Graphics Fairy.
After another light sanding to distress the signage a bit, the sides bits were glued onto the tray and then the metal bracing strip was screwed in to hold everything together. To protect the tray I gave it two coats of a clear sealant. What do you think? Can I give up my day job and become a maker of stuff for Pottery Barn.
I’m loving the way the sealant added a rich luster to the weathered wood and that rustification on the bracing strips.
And to think the wooden barrel top tray started out as a poor forgotten table in someone’s woodpile.
If you like the idea of making your own wine barrel top, don’t forget to pin it for later
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Have you brought home broken wooden bits to make something new? Please share in the comments, I’d love to hear about it.
Oh before I forget, if you don’t want to go to the trouble of finding some of the materials we used, we’ve got you covered Disclosure: Clicking on the links below, means we may receive a commission from Amazon. But don’t worry it won’t come out of your pocket, and it helps us come up with more crafty ideas to share with you.
As always here’s wishing you a beautifully creative week.
Last update on 2026-04-23 / Source Amazon Affiliates
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