Plant Stand Makeover

I haven’t been very secretive about my legendary black thumb around here.  From killing an entire indoor herb garden to a succulent display to our entire front yard (eek!), keeping plants alive hasn’t been my strongest suit.

Like my mom always told me, I can do anything I set my mind to. And I wanted to have some fresh herbs and some nice greenery, darn it! I haven’t shared with you guys because I was afraid I would later have to announce the demise of yet another plant. I am very proud to say, however that I have kept plants alive for the last 3 months or so.

It’s a miracle! 🙂

I have a vision of turning our entire sunroom into a lovely indoor garden to help me beat the winter blues, but in the meantime I needed somewhere pretty to put our herbs. So when I noticed a neighbor selling a plant stand for $15 on a local Facebook yard sale page (don’t join these unless you want to be constantly tempted! :P) I immediately said “WANT” and asked Scott to pick it up for me.

When he brought it home, it was just how it looked in the photos. Very dark and not really my style at all. Luckily, I had been talking to a representative from Annie Sloan Unfolded about partnering with them to showcase their paint and decided this would be the perfect candidate for a makeover. I received three colors—a larger size of French Linen and a sample size of both Old White and Duck Egg Blue.

I’ve wrote about my love of Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan before in this post, but wanted to try something different this time. I decided I wanted to mix a custom color—a blend of two of my favorites, Old White and French Linen. I tried out a few variations in a mason jar and tested it on a piece of scrap wood.

My favorite was the blend that was about 25% Old White and 75% French Linen. I simply filled a mason jar with my mixture, and after wiping the piece down, began painting.

Did you catch that? NO sanding. NO prepping. NO stripping paint. NO primer. I had a black plant stand that I wanted to be a lighter color—and I just started painting. To be honest that’s probably my favorite feature of Annie Sloan’s paint—no prep necessary! I like quick results so it’s the perfect match for my projects. 🙂

I ended up doing two coats overall, and still have more than half of my mixture left. When I first looked at pricing for the products, I almost talked myself out of using it, because it seemed a bit more expensive compared to what I’m used to paying for paint. But I truly feel that the paint goes so much further than any other I’ve used and the coverage is just excellent. Totally worth it!

I have to take a second to talk about the brush I used though. This is the Annie Sloan Pure Bristle Brush. When I painted my last piece, I just used a regular brush I had lying around. This time, however, after hearing how crazy people were for the bristle brush, I decided to give it a try.

You guys. Obsessed. First of all, the shape is perfect. It has that nice rounded end that makes it easier to get into any nook (and this piece had a lot!). It also distributed the paint evenly AND it beat my personal pet peeve (I even talked about it yesterday in my watercolor post!)—there were NO hairs that fell off the brush into my paint. Sold.

After letting the plant stand dry overnight I then decided to go back and add a bit of color and detail. I used a small brush to paint Chalk Paint® Decorative Paint in Duck Blue into some trim areas, and even freehanded some details on the sides.

I knew I wanted a more worn look, so the next day I went back and used sandpaper to rub off a few areas so the black underneath could peak through. The paint is super easy to sand off, and I love that it’s non-toxic.

 

Finally, since I knew I would have water around the piece I did a coat of Annie Sloan Clear Soft Wax to give the piece a durable finish.

Now the plant stand, in all its glory sits in our sunroom with lovely, ALIVE pants in it, soaking up the sun.

Sometimes I even pull out the plants (they are all still potted) and use the stand to house beverages. If you want to try this on a plant stand of your own, make sure it’s waterproof. Mine has a metal lining that keeps the wood from getting ruined! I just love this stand so much that I can’t stop using it! 🙂

Have you tried Chalk Paint® before? I am having a REALLY hard time picking my next color (check them all out here!) what do you guys think?

This project was completed in partnership with Annie Sloan Unfolded, but all opinions are my own. I only partner with companies that I trust and admire and feel fully confident recommending them to you. Thank you for supporting the companies like Annie Sloan Unfolded that help fund my diy-drive!