It’s a fun day when I get to start my creative juices flowing with all the fantastic #trashure finds I find during city spring cleanup. One day in particular I was outside spray painting listening to all the junky trucks driving around our neighborhood as they shopped Curb le Chic. It was our quadrant’s turn, and I was being a good girl staying home until the last day. My neighbor came over to ask me if I wanted seedling pots he was throwing out. As he was talking, I looked at his pile and asked, “Is that a stool in your trash?” He replied, “No, an ash tray”. We walked over together to inspect his loot. Thus begins the story of my repurposed plant stand.

You see, he not only had this funky ash tray, but a perfectly good glass vase and bouquet of flowers. I asked if I could have them both and he agreed eyeing me queerly. hee hee hee. I’m sure it boggled his brain on why on earth I would want those things. Little does he know I already had a vision for them. Isn’t that fun?!

DIY TIME

Okay, so in my head I was going to make this work by removing the glass inset for at time, take off the handle and plug the hole with dowel, and add a tuna can.

Yep, that there be an empty tuna can. Why? (you ask in a questioning my sanity kind of way) Well, when I flipped that glass ash tray over, I needed something to hold it in place for my vision. The instant I flipped that glass ash tray over, the first thing that came to mind for the right size was a tuna can. I centered it and attached with screws. And you can also see the glued dowel sanded down where the handle use to be.

PAINT

First, I scrub down the ash tray with a cleaning solution that gits rid of grime, odor, and really preps the surface for paint. Amazingly enough, this thing didn’t smell like smoke at all before I cleaned it. I don’t know if my neighbor never used it, but I’m sensitive to smoke and I couldn’t trace much, if any, odor, and neither could my kids. Win!

After cleaning, I give it a couple of coats of soft white letting it cure in between.

While the paint was curing, I began by cleaning the vase and ash tray glass tray as well, and then primed with patina paint kit. You see, I’m not new to painting glass, you can see my other DIY for all that thrifted gold HERE in this post.

WREATH FUN

While I was letting the paint and primer cure on my project pieces, I began another project. haha! I saw no need to pitch the flowers, so I created a wreath for my front door with them. I love it!

It was just what I needed for front door refresh, and those flowers were too pretty to toss out. Oh, and I often get asked how I hang my wreaths, so here’s my secret…I use a Command hook attached upside down on the upper back side of my door and make a loop in my burlap hanger to hook it on. BAM!

Back to my vase and patina fun. To add texture to my repurposed plant stand, I wanted to make it look old. That’s where the Patina Paint comes into play. If you haven’t seen my past projects using this stuff, you have to check out this Art Deco vanity and these projects too.

METAL PAINT

Okay, so I added two coats of the Metal Effects paint letting cure in between coats.

Here’s the key…before doing the second coat, I get my patina spray ready because as soon as I get that paint on I have to mist it while the paint is still wet to get the effect I’m after. You can see it better in my video I created for our DIY Garden Arbor.

While the paint is wet, I spray on my patina spray, and you can see the action of the patina being created right before you’re eyes. It’s so cool to see the metallic bits in the paint oxidize instantly.

While I’m letting that oxidation action happen, I head back to my repurposed plant stand and add some faux patina to there as well. I brush on the waxes and then buff to my liking.

THE REVEAL

Here’s the repurposed plant stand complete with patina(ed) urn. wahoo!

Just look at that gorgeous patina! I seriously swoon watching this stuff take action. So amazing what some DIY fun can do, isn’t it?

You can even see the patina touches I added to the plant stand base to tie it all in. The waxes are so easy to use and make my work look wonderful.

Would you ever have guessed this was an ash tray? That tuna can fix worked out awesome.

ONE MORE THING

Oh, and in case you were wondering what I did what that handle I first removed from the ash tray, I couldn’t let that go to waste either. I whipped up this reclaimed wood tray to put it to use. See it in the middle?

Like all my fun creations, you can find this reclaimed tray, and the plant stand in my online store. Be sure to sign up for my newsletter to get a discount off your first purchase and my freebies.

So…do you think I should show my neighbor? Hmmm…

In addition, pin and share my repurposed plant stand to inspire folks to not only get their DIY on, but dig in other people’s trash! ahahaha!!

Up next, my oldest son will be sharing what he did with this vintage Broyhill Saga dresser. See this made new HERE.

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