DIY: pedestal cake stand

so i had to wait until after christmas to post this... then i got distracted. so here it is now:

I made my christmas presents this year. I only made two. so dont feel to beneath me; its not that great of an accomplishment.. i made one for my mom and one for my dear best friend; Shawni. You know the later of the two, and I couldn't put the diy on the blog because she would see it and that would ruin the surprise and all the suspense I had built up over my grand gift. 

so it is no surprise that I am a huge internet window shopper, and one of my favorite links to peruse is anthropologie.com, so last summer I was looking at things that were pretty to wish for but i could never justify or fathom purchasing anything from their pretty kitchen section. I saw a gorgeous pedestal cake stand; I drooled, and then thought of numerous things I could put under the glass dome. but nothing seemed adequate enough, especially for the price tag of $295... I would have to give my boyfriend my left hand as payback for having a ridiculous lapse in judgement. I closed the shopping cart and went about my day. Dont worry, having the random memory bank that I do, I kept the dream alive in my imagination, in my dream kitchen the pedestal cake stand lived on my dream counter top of my dream kitchen island and through my dream bay window a beacon of warm sunlight hits just right at 5 pm and under the gleaming glass dome of glory, was a beautiful slice of aged brie over priced yes, but delicious and will stay fresh and never go bad. aaaaanyways, back on track... yes i kept it alive. well i was going through target in November and what did I 

find to my surprise?

This beautiful creature!!! A cheese plate with glass dome. (still available online for $19) so I put three in my cart.. I had a plan. and my plan was just to buy a random pedestal candle holder, put them together... and paint them whatever color i desired for each person... so down the aisle and around the corner i went smiling like an idiot... 

and what did i see??... NATE Berkus' handsome face!

I don't really know if what I found had his name attached; but what I do know is that seeing him on Oprahs' show growing up; he knows what he is talking about in the home decor department, so my mind is already singing his praises as I search for literally 2.7 seconds, when i see two pillar candle holders, one 10 inch, and the other 14 inches...

yep. that's it, aren't they pretty? that's the 10 inch pillar, and the 14, you get the idea... you guessed it just 4 inches bigger... anyways, i put them in the cart and in my head it seems super easy just to glue the two together. right? totally... get home, and sit down... and start to ponder the right course of action.

i grab wax paper, sharpie, scissors, and sandpaper, wood glue, and my 3 lbs. hand weights... (would've been smarter to grab a tape measure, but I'm not a very smart DIY-er, so...) I went with the wax paper and sharpie method...

step 1: I trace the cheese board on the wax paper with the sharpie... yep. done, easy....BAM! I rule!!  cant be that hard right?

step 2: cut out circle, yep... still easy i think

step 3: fold in half, fold it in half again, (looking back the smartest way to go about this step would be to cut the middle corner off... so there would be a big hole, just use sharpie to get the middle of the plate... but I didn't think of it 'til just now.. that's not what i did... ) what did I do? I just scribbled a x on the wax paper until it seeped thru on the bottom cheese board... yes, I look smarter than I am apparently...

step 4: find pliers 

step 5: attempt to take off the black metal candle holder plate on the candle holder... one easy, the other... not the case, get bk to take apart the second one.

step 6: find a tape measure.. duh, that would've helped me in step one... but hey

step 7: measure the diameter of the candle holder; its 4 inches.. you're welcome...

step 8: make a 4x4 square in the middle of cheese board.. 

step 9: sand your heart out.... until all the stain is off the rim of the candle holder and the square in the middle of the cheese board

step 10: wood glue the rim of the candle holder... place in the sanded square on the cheese board. place hand weight on the candle pillar and let dry over night

step 11. admire your work... you deserve it

 (didnt bk take a great picture? i am so happy he is a great photographer... it looks like an ad on a website or something... granted the border is all me... )