One Hour DIY: An Easy and Useful Rolling Christmas Tree Stand

This DIY rolling tree stand makes it SO much easier to move and store our Christmas trees upright! This project took less than an hour to complete and about $15 in supplies.

If you have the space and want to try storing your tree standing between seasons, this project will make the process even easier! This is a great idea for a newbie DIYer — the only tools you’ll need are a drill and drill bit.

We are SO lucky to have an unfinished storage room in our basement. Years ago, I decided to start storing our basement Christmas tree standing instead of taking it down:

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This is a HUGE time saver! We leave the tree completely decorated — ornaments, garland and beaded picks all stay on.

The only problem is, all of those decorations add quite a bit of weight to the tree. It’s still doable — we have always covered the tree with this upright tree bag and then two of us carry it kind of angled into the storage room.

When we put it up the next year, I usually have to adjust a few decorations, but not much! I love it.

BUT…carrying a decorated tree the way we have is probably not ideal, as I don’t want to chance breaking any part of our beautiful Christmas tree.

So, I had a great idea. I actually tried this a few years ago, but wasn’t as successful. This time I added one very important detail and now it works perfectly!

This past season, I saw a few people talk about rolling Christmas tree stands that are made for just this purpose. When I looked them up, I knew I could make one for WAY cheaper — the least expensive rolling tree stand I found was $60!

This time, I started with a very inexpensive ($10) two by two foot piece of plywood from the hardware store:

I picked out plywood that was about half an inch thick so the screws for the wheels could get a good grip in the wood. I wouldn’t recommend going any thinner with your wood base.

Thankfully I already had half of the supplies for this project, including a set of caster wheels for under the plywood base:

I installed them a few inches in on each corner of the wood.

Keep the placement of your casters in mind — if you put them too close to the middle, the tree will tip easier. If you put them at the very edge, the center of the board may not hold the weight as well.

I flipped the wood over and tested out the wheels, then placed the tree on the stand so I could mark where I needed to drill holes:

These holes were drilled into each side of each tree stand leg. I wanted to make sure the stand would stay put as we moved the tree around.

This is where you’ll need something strong to secure the tree base to the wood board. I used some zip ties we already had, but if I do this again, I’ll use these heavy duty zip ties instead.

The two holes allowed me to run the ties through the wood:

Before putting the tree back on the base for the final time, I drilled four additional holes into the wood. This time, to run this braided rope through so we could pull the tree on the rolling base:

I did this on both sides — and gave myself enough rope so we could comfortably pull while standing.

After everything was in place, I put the tree back on the base (by myself…do not recommend!). My husband was on a call and I have zero patience.

You can see here how the two holes for the zip ties are on each side of the tree stand legs:

Once I was sure the legs were lined up correctly, I secured the ties to the stand:

I recommend not tightening the zip ties until all of them are secured.

Of course all of this project would be much easier if done without the tree in the stand, but I made due! 😂

It worked brilliantly! I was able to pull the tree by myself easily:

Being able to pull the tree away from the wall also makes it easier to put the storage bag on the tree.

Our tree is 7.5 feet tall, so we had to tilt it just slightly to get it through the doorway to our storage room. My husband angled the tree a bit (and I spotted on the other side) so it could go under go under the door casing.

Things to consider if you make a DIY rolling Christmas tree stand:

If you use a tree collar, I would make your base smaller than the collar like I did. Otherwise you’ll see the not-so-pretty base when your decorative collar is under the tree. Our collar is 27 inches wide, so it should fit around this no problem.
You could make the base any size or shape you desire, but using this plywood as-is was the easiest!
Since we’ll be pulling our tree on carpet, if I did this project again I’d probably use heavier duty casters. Ours roll just fine, but taller wheels would be a bit easier.
If you’ll be rolling a heavy tree on hardwood floors, I suggest using some scrap cardboard under the wheels so they don’t damage your floors.
Using casters that move freely is key — you’ll want to be able to go around corners and turn the with the heavy weight.

I should have done this years ago! This cheap DIY base is a game changer and will prevent any damage to the tree.

by www.thriftydecorchick.com