Rustic Farmhouse Style Lazy Susan

I’m very excited and honored to be here today sharing a DIY Rustic Lazy Susan with all of you fabulous The Shabby Creek Cottage readers! My name is Maria and I am the creator of Pastels and Macarons where I share fun, quick and easy crafts, DIY’s, Organization and Cleaning tips for the home.

I love to DIY things for my home and I also love to repurpose things that are no longer loved and appreciated. I don’t know what it is about turning something old and not so great into something new that I love but I feel it allows your creative juices to flow and it’s amazing the things you can dream up and make once you start using that creative side of your brain!

Giving an unloved object new life and giving it the chance to be fabulous again or turning it into something completely different to what it was can be really fun and rewarding. This is exactly how I felt about this old, worn stool I no longer had any use for. This guy has been with my husband and I since around 2007 when we first moved in together and had about 5 cents to furnish our home. No joke, we had nothing! It was handy, sturdy and trusty. It was our side table for years. But it was time to say “bye bye”.

I didn’t want to throw it out or give it away because I felt like I owed this stool a second change for all the years it served us well. I promise I’m not a creepy hoarder lady, it was just a little sentimental because it was one of the first pieces or furniture we owned together! haha. I really wanted to give it a new purpose in our home. So I decided to turn this beaten up old stool into something I actually wanted and needed, and what I needed was a Lazy Susan! I wanted a nice Lazy Susan I can display in the kitchen, dining room or coffee table that can be used as a serving tray also.

If you want to make a basic Lazy Susan for your Kitchen Cupboards, the same steps apply minus the painted wording.

Here’s the before:

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Supplies and Tools:

Old Stool  (If you do not have an old stool you can buy a wood round made from pine or other materials for this project)

• Lazy Susan Turnable Hardware (you can get one here or at most hardware stores near you. The size you choose depends on the size round you purchase)
• 4 x Pan Head Screw – 1/2 inch length. (length of screws will depends on the thickness of the wood you use)
• 2 x Brushed Bronze Cabinet Pulls 
• 4 x M4 x 40mm Phillips Flat Head Countersunk Screws 
• Dark Walnut Stain 
• Ikea Cork Heat Trivet
• Bosch Electric Hand Drill
• Hand Held Sander
• 80 grit Sand Paper (for sander)
• Hammer
• Screw Driver
• Black Chalk Paint
• Clear Chalk Paint Wax  (To seal the chalk paint)
• Paint Brush
• X-Acto Knife
• Flat Stensil Brush
• A4 white paper (optional)
• Printer (optional)

How To Make A Lazy Susan

This project is a little photo heavy, but please do not let the quantity of photos scare you. It’s quite a simple project that can be done easily in a couple of hours.

I started off by taking the legs off the stool seat. It was quite simple. I used a screw driver to do this.

I used a hand held sander with 80 grit sand paper to remove all of the paint. I had to do this for a long time and went through a few pieces of sand paper because the paint was some sort of industrial stuff! Let me tell you, this stuff was tough to get off. But when I finally removed it all, it felt really good! I admit I gave up on the bottom, but it’s not on display so it didn’t matter. I cleaned off the stool seat and I had my piece of round wood ready to convert into a Lazy Susan!

I chose a dark walnut color which I absolutely love and use a lot on my projects. I stained the top and also around the rim of the base.

Once it had dried for about 10 minutes I decided at the last minute I wanted the wood to look more worn as I was going for the rustic / farmhouse / industrial feel. So I grabbed a hammer and started hammering all over the top to make indentations. Once I was done I then rubbed on a second coat of stain. I found this was enough, but if you want it really dark, you can do more coats until you get your desired look. I allowed the stain to dry for 24 hours before I continued with the project.

While I waited for the stain to dry. I created a stencil using this method  I could not find a pre-made stencil I liked and I wanted to use a very specific font. I used the font Stencil STD. I chose the words “Tea, Coffee, Wine”. As you can see I ran out of ink so my printer printed the words this funny green/blue color.

After I printed out the words, I used an X-Acto knife to cut out the outline of the letters. This is a little time consuming and you do require a steady hand but don’t worry if you make little mistakes. The great thing about rustic farmhouse is that the imperfections make it absolutely perfect! If you don’t want to worry about designing the words yourself and you like what I have used you can download the “Tea, Coffee , Wine” words here

Once the Lazy Susan round was dry and I had the words cut out, I placed them exactly where I wanted them. I used a flat stensil brush and black chalk paint and started gently sponging the paint on the letters. I made sure to wipe off excess paint before starting the sponging process so that no paint got under the stensil and mucked up the words.

The beauty of Chalk style paint is that it dries very fast. I let the paint dry for about 15 minutes before it was completely dry. I finish by rubbing on chalk paint sealing wax. This wax helps protect the paint from scratching off.

I had my husband help me finish the Lazy Susan. We decided to put the handles on first.

We measured the Lazy Susan round and decided where we wanted to have the handles. Then marked the spots so we had them evenly opposite to each other. I drew circles around exactly where we had to drill. If you use a handle that you can drill down from the top like this one  then you do not need to do this. But to make sure we did it accurately we marked the exact spots where we would drill. I’m happy to report we got it right! Phew!

We used a cordless electric drill to make the holes for the handles. We then slipped the Pan Head Screws in from the bottom side of the Lazy Susan and secured them on to the handles.

*Remember to place wood underneath the area you will be drilling so that you do nor drill a hole on to your work bench.

We turned the lazy Susan around and screwed on the turnable hardware using the flat head countersunk screws. To do this, it is very simple: Place the hardware exactly where you want it. We measured and marked the centre of the circle and placed the turnable hardware right in the middle.

Twist the turnable hardware so that all holes are exposed. Insert the screws on the holes directly touching the Lazy Susan round. Screw tightly.

To finish off the Lazy Susan I hot glued an Ikea Cork Heat Trivet to the base of the Lazy Susan hardware. This was to give it extra balance and to protect any surface from the metal hardware.

I finished off by painting the rim of the Lazy Susan in the same black Chalk paint. I didn’t like how the stain looked on the rim and I’m glad I painted it. It didn’t take long for the paint and wax to dry and my Lazy Susan was all ready to use!

Though this tutorial has a lot of steps, it really is a very simple project that can be easily done in an hour or two (minus drying time).

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial today and that it inspires you to make your own Rustic Farmhouse Lazy Susan.

If you enjoyed this tutorial you can see more projects over on my blog I would love to see you there!