Thrifty Nightstand Turned Flower Planter

Welcome to now one of my most favorite makeovers to date…”Thrifty Nightstand Turned Flower Planter”.  This is a good one folks, and I am very excited about it, but first I want to tell you something.  One of my sweet followers (I consider you all friends) left me a comment on my recent post about “Dollar Store Solar Lights” and it really made me feel good to read what she had to say.  Feel free to click over to the highlighted title above and read her comment (it’s #20), but what it boils down to is that she is pleased with my ability to decorate without spending a lot of money.   Sometimes I worry that folks may get bored with my dollar store ideas, or thrifty makeovers, so I was thrilled to know I come across as being down to Earth and not all about buying expensive decor at stores.  I LOVE BARGAINS and I will always root for thrifty affordable ideas rather than expensive trendy ones.  Okay…enough chit chat.  Let’s get on to the nightstand.

So, how do you like it?

You may even like it better once you see what it looked like when I got it home from the thrift store…

It really wasn’t that bad, until I opened it  😯 .  What the?  Did someone have a baby or something?

Now I know I could have actually sanded this beauty and stained it, but I wasn’t in the mood for sanding.  I hate sanding.  I also knew I wanted to repurpose it for our front porch, so keeping it wood just didn’t sound like it would POP to me.

In addition, I didn’t think of white first.

I thought possibly deep navy blue, but then when I put the blue up against the brick, it didn’t do it for me.  Then I thought pink.  No, that would be crazy.  I needed it to be white folks.

Look how cute my green ceramic frog looks on top.  It’s almost like he was made to sit there.  He was looking a little rusty, so I sprayed his lower half with a dark green spray paint and then added those little white specs you see on his belly.  I was pretty impressed with myself because he looks like he came that way.  If you look real close you can still see a little rust on his toes.  I think I’ll call him “Rusty Toes”.

So, you’re wondering why I’m giving the frog all of the attention when the flowers are the real show stopper.  It looks like I stuffed those flowers in there, right?

Well, I guess you could say I did stuff those flowers in there and this is how…

After I removed the handles and sanded the entire piece just a little, I spray painted it with white spray paint (see source list below).  I did approximately 4 coats (it took 2 cans of white).  I also sprayed the handles gold (see source list below).

Then I walked around the house searching for something that I could put in there to hold the flowers that wouldn’t rust or fall apart when I watered them.  I didn’t want to use pots because they dry out too quick. Luckily I had 2 aluminum pans that fit in there almost perfectly.  I had to kind of play with them a little as you can tell to get them to fit snug.

Then I added my favorite soil (see source list below) and the flowers (impatiens and I don’t know what the white ones are).  I only did the bottom drawer although originally had planned to do both.  I realized one drawer was plenty.

When I stuck the drawer in I couldn’t get over how cute it was.  My husband helped me get it over to our COVERED front porch.  Unfortunately, I don’t think this would work on an uncovered porch or patio.  The paint can only protect so much.

I should also mention that I liked this nightstand so much I almost used it for an end table in my living room.  Then I just told myself, “No, Julie, stick with the plan.”

I am so happy I listened to Julie.

UPDATE: Here’s what t looked like a few weeks later!

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WHITE SPRAY PAINT

GOLD SPRAY PAINT

ALUMINUM PANS

POTTING SOIL MIX

SIMILAR FROG

Repurposed Candelabra

Repurposed Kettle