Repurposing an Ugly Plant Stand

I have an old plant stand that I got at an auction when the one piece I wanted got bunched in with a lot of well...there's no other way to put it...junk. Have you ever been to an auction where something the auctioneer holds up won't even bring an opening bid so they stick something that is good with it? Seems like it happens to me all the time. I go to auctions and bid on stuff that appeals to me and not stuff that's worth money. Well this plant stand is an example of a "junk" piece. I placed a bid of $5 and waited.....no one wanted it and it was mine! I got the other item I was really wanting and this was the "bonus" piece that came with it.

It's not the ugliest thing in the world but so not my style, so I tucked it away from sight in the scrapbook room and basically forgot about it...until the other day when I got bored and was wandering around the room trying to decide what I wanted to do. So I pulled out the ugly stand and my trusty can of spray paint and started covering it.

I didn't sand it down first so that the paint wouldn't cover evenly. I wanted the vintage look and parts of the wood coming out made the piece look like it wasn't freshly painted.
After the paint had dried I found some clear stickers left over from scrapbooking. There were a bunch on the 2 pages and they were all related to time.

I started with one of the larger stickers placed toward the center and kept working my way til I had a design that I liked.

And I had enough stickers to cover it the way I wanted.

After getting all the stickers placed I then covered it with several coats of Mod Podge letting it dry well between coats. I put on enough that the edges of the stickers weren't noticeable. (About 4 coats).
I also let the spray paint cure for about a day and then took a fine sandpaper block and lightly distressed some places on the base and legs. I also sprayed some acryllic sealer on over everything. Be careful though- the paint bubbled on me which was what I wanted since I was going for vintage. I just didn't touch it for hours to make sure it wouldn't peel.



 And the completed project

Now this is a piece that has a spot of honor now! I almost hate to cover it with a plant!