Eclectic Plants…

I love love love plants of any kind. They make any home effortlessly neat. Plus I like that added vibe of Mid- century modern, and nowadays who doesn’t love mid century modern?!! 😁 I DO!!  I’ve been through a handful of styles in my home and, when I was into shabby chic a few years ago my bedroom and living room were so chic but for some weird reason, my dining room just couldn’t grasp onto a good style vibe. lol I literally had flowers on my walls in the dining room. How granny chic is that?! 😀 It was cute while it lasted but I got sick of it and painted the walls a light gray. My poor hubby never said a word because it took me over three weeks to hand paint the flowers on the walls but he sure didn’t complain when I made the switch to gray 😀 What I’m trying to say is some styles are much more versatile than others. Mid-century Modern definitely has it’s benefits while making any room look modern you can still tweak it add a touch of your own favorite furniture pieces and it’ll still look awesome. So, here’s to plants and decor! 😁

Plant Stand Journey

Oh my gosh I’ve been all over the web looking for cute plant stands.  Those West elm little wood plant stands are so stinking cute but like always way over my budget. As much as I loved those I decided to challenge myself and bring in some industrial decor. I know nothing about construction so I set out on an adventure making this modern little plant stand.  To give you a pointer one of the biggest reasons I wanted to do it out of concrete was because I really wanted to make it raw edges. I love anything raw edged.. wood, concrete, marble, metal…lol if that was possible. (might be too dangerous)  Okay then let’s get started.

What you’ll need to make this trendy plant stand

I’ll add affiliate links for everything that I used below (SCROLL DOWN)  😀

  • Concrete (quick setting is optional)
  • Dowell  (or long stick)
  • Bucket (for the plant stand top)
  • Bucket  (for mixing)
  • Miter Saw  (optional or Handsaw)
  • Sander
  • Wood Stain  (of your choice)
  • Tape
  • Paper
  • Spray paint
  • Smallish Flat head screw driver
  • Smallish hammer

Let’s Do This !!

So while I was making this plant stand I ended up making a small rectangle one too. It turned out horrendous but, I did get to practice my raw edging technique on it which was actually very helpful. If you’ve never chipped edges on concrete I would recommend making a practice slab. 😀  I purchased my Dowel and concrete at the home depot. (total cost for me was $9.50 because I had the rest of the supplies at home from previous projects )

Plant stand

plant stand

This is what size dowel I got. It was the seven eighths.

plant stand

I also cut my dowels on my own.  I’m sure home depot could cut them to size. They usually do but this time I decided to pull this baby out. I divided my dowel into three sections to make legs out of it.  (My legs measured at 16″ each)

plant stand

Mixing Concrete

This is totally optional. I bagged my concrete before opening it so I could tie the bag up after and use it for my next project. 😀 Plus it was a bit cleaner this way.

I didn’t use any specific measuring for mixing the concrete since there isn’t really a recipe for this. The instructions on the bag said to add water to the concrete powder. Keep in mind it will double in size, so start small.  I purchased this mixing bucket at the dollar store. I started by pouring in 1/4 bucket of cold water and started adding the concrete. Boy this was a tedious process. My arms nearly fell off.. Good workout though.😃 Make sure and mix well because I was about to start pouring in and noticed it was clumpy. Try to get rid of as many clumps as possible.

plant stand

This is what it should look like once mixed.

plant stand

I then took my bucket and if you look close measured and marked 2.5 inches away from the bottom to make sure I don’t go over that mark.  I know I wanted the concrete top to be under three inches and this was a great way to keep track of the thickness.

plant stand

Then simply take your legs and stick them in. I tried not to have them touching in the middle so it wouldn’t look dorky.. 😀 I did about three inches apart forming a perfect triangle shape.  Before leaving it to cure take a stick and lightly tap the bucket on the sides a few times for the bubbles to come out. Then leave it outside to cure overnight.

plant stand

After letting it cure for 24 hours. I carefully pulled it out.  It should come right out. Then I used a tiny flat head screwdriver and a smallish hammer and chipped the edges.

MAJOR TIP

Keep in mind there is a technique to this. Concrete is very prone to breaking especially at this stage when it’s not fully cured. I’ve never tried doing it once it’s fully cured so I don’t know if it would work on fully cured concrete.  (the concrete was stiff enough to sit on.lol trying to give you an example… it just wasn’t strong enough to be messed with too much)

How to do it:

I started off by chipping the edges all around while flipped upside down NOT chipping all the way to the bottom. Then I flipped it on its legs and chipped the edges on top. Once I was done with top and bottom, I chipped what was left in between. It’s a tedious process but is totally worth the effort. 😀  The chipping process took me about 45 minutes to complete.

plant stand

Staining

Then I simply took some wood stain and rubbed the stain into the wood with a napkin. The color stain I used was special walnut.  I let the stain settle in overnight but you can give it 4-6 hours and paint over it.

plant stand

 Extras

I decided to taper down the bottom of my legs to give it more of a leg feel rather than a dowel. Totally being picky. 🙂  I think the fact that I knew I used a dowel was what was messing with my head..So this is totally optional because it looks good either way.

plant stand

It’s a beauty..

This is what I left it at. Also a tedious process but I loved the extra effort I put in it. It definitely showed in the end.   OOOH before I started sanding I marked where I would be painting so I wouldn’t go over it. That way you don’t have to stain it again.  LOL.. I totally did this all backwards. I know I should have stained and sanded it before I stuck the legs in the concrete.  I’m always changing my mind mid-project that would explain why it’s all backwards.

plant stand

I measured 5 inches from the bottom and taped it off. I knew I didn’t want the white paint to cover too much of the pretty wood grain.

plant diy

 

Painting

Then I used a paint and primer in the color white to paint the bottoms of the legs.  Yes I do have a few large chips on the bottom of the concrete slab but I don’t mind them at all.   (if you used more then one coat of stain I would highly recommend using a primer/paint because you don’t want the stain to leak into your paint)

plant stand

Now, how lovely is that!! 😀 I am obsessed with it. So modern and trendy. 😀 I hope you like it.

plant stand

plant stand

plant stand

The detail on the edges definitely makes it unique.  The flat surface area on the slab ended up having some halos from the bucket and it’s totally sandable, but I personally didn’t really mind because I’d have a plant on it anyways.  ( I used a recycled paint bucket and I think they run a bit thinner then the regular ones home depot sells.  So maybe that’s why the surface was like that. ehh dunno)

plant stand diy

Here’s a snippet of the texture from the top.

plant stand

The tapered beautiful legs.

plant stand diy

 

I hope you enjoyed this ! 😀

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(PS. Some Fridays might be missed, I apologize in advance. I’m only human and sometimes don’t get around to posting a DIY as soon as I would like…most times my husband’s to blame. HAHA 😂

Here are some affiliate links to the supplies I used (read disclosure about affiliate links here)

Here’s a cute pinnable 😀 Pin away.