When I got my 1st apartment in 1997 my grandmother was downsizing and moving to a retirement community in Florida. As a result I got a bunch of furniture that used to be hers. Many of these pieces are projects waiting to happen (and have been waiting for almost 15 years now!).
Possibly my favorite piece from everything I got from my grandma is a funky little 3 level plant stand. It’s wooden and was painted a basic white. I think you could also use it as a bookcase or an end table but I put it in the bathroom at my 1st apartment and put a plant on it and it’s been a plant stand ever since. I’ve carried it around with me from PA to OK to Alexandria and now here – always wanting to do something with it. Finally inspiration hit! I’d cover it with pictures of flowers! It was after all a plant stand!
Here’s a picture of it before I started:
The first step was to paint the whole thing green, gloaming green to be exact…yes gloaming green is the official name from Valspar!
Next I had to gather the pictures! I knew I had tons of pictures of flowers, and plants, from all my travels! I gathered them all in an album in Picasa and uploaded them to Snapfish and then had them printed to pick up at my local Walgreens! In the process of finding the pictures I did discover that I was missing pictures from my Alaska trip and that I don’t really have any of my pictures from Maine. I’m not sure what happened to most of my Alaska pictures. I have about 300 but there are whole days missing. My only guess is that they were on my school laptop and that I didn’t back them up all up correctly before the computer was reimaged. I know that using my school computer is what happened to my Maine pictures. I didn’t have time to back everything up before turning the computer over for reimaging and I knew my Maine pictures were on Picasa Web Albums. When I downloaded the pics from the web I must have only downloaded the thumbnail. I have them, but they are tiny and you can’t make them bigger or the resolution falls apart. :-( Luckily I did upload a bunch of Shutterfly when I had them blown up for the walls! Those pictures are fine, and I have 2 walls in the dining room with framed prints from Maine. I guess I’ll just have to go back to Maine and Alaska! Bummer! In the meantime, I’m super glad I have my own laptop now and hopefully won’t lose any more pics to reimaging!
Anyway, back to the plant stand….
Arranging the pictures was harder than I expected because most of them were zoomed in so much! It was hard to overlap! It was also hard because there wasn’t a lot of surface space on the plant stand! I tried to fold the pictures around the edges, but I couldn’t make them stick so ended up just cutting the overhang off. On the “front” of the stand I put pictures on the supports, in the end I didn’t like that, I think it looks too busy. Unfortunately Modge Podge is permanent and I can’t pull them off!
Here’s the finished product:
This is the “front” with the pictures on the supports…see what I mean…too busy!
This is the “back” – I decided to put flowers on it just in case I ever decided to use the piece in the middle of a room or as and end table!
Here’s the plant stand back in action in the plant corner:
The Calla Lily in the front is new. I got it at Wegmans last week – it’s purple! It had one flower when I got it, now it has 5 with another on the way!
While I’m showing off the plants, here’s a current picture of the split leaf:
It’s obviously doing very well. I repotted it a few months ago – I think it was during my January snow days because I remember having to wait till the dirt thawed! The shiny leaf is brand new! It’s had a monopoly on the window for the last few months but I need it to start growing up rather than out so I’m hoping moving it back will help a bit. It’s almost time to stake it!
And here’s the Norfolk Pine that will celebrate it’s 36th birthday this week. Guess I need a plan for what to do when it hits the ceiling.
In the lower right corner of the picture is a chair. I’m pretty sure this chair was left behind by the previous owner of our house in Cincinnati. I’m unsure of how it ended up at my house unless it got thrown in the truck with the other stuff my parents shipped to me. I’ve debated throwing it out several times, it really serves no useful purpose, except for back at Christmas when one of my students parents gave me a poinsettia! Just today it occurred to me that this could be my next project…I think it could use a little decoupage! Then I could put more plants on it, or use it for seating (gasp!)
Just so they don’t feel left out, the plants that live on the pie safe:
1 comment:
I don't think it looks too busy with the pictures on the supports. I think it looks lovely!
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