Paris Gray Plant Stand

I was doing my usual thrift shopping one Friday morning when I came across the cutest little plant stand for $5.99.  Do I need a plant stand?  No.  Can't keep an indoor plant alive to save my life but I suddenly needed this little guy really badly.

I wasn't even sure where I'd put this little stand but I had a brand new tester of Annie Sloan's Paris Gray.  Yup.  This was actually the first thing I ever painted.  Way before the media center and the numerous other things I've taken to covering in Paris Gray.  I figured if I didn't like it, it would be an easy re-donation right back to the same thrift store.  But as we all know, Paris Gray and I are deeply in love and it all started with this little fellow.

The reason I haven't posted it earlier is I've been wanting to try my hand at stenciling or painting on top of furniture and, again, this little stand is my tester.  I spent an afternoon while the boys napped browsing the Internet to look for something simple and I found this graphic and saved it to my pictures.  I'm loving all things Paris and French at the moment.  Unfortunately I forgot to save the source and now I can't find it anymore.

I thought it came from the Graphics Fairy but I can't find it there.  So if you know where this image came from, let me know so I can give proper credit where it's due.  Nothing worse than thieving from the world wide web.

Then I spent some time trying to figure out how to get the image on top of the stand.  I can't draw a straight line to save my life so free hand sketching is out of the question.  I don't have an overhead projector (but want one sooooo bad!) so I just kind of stalled for awhile.

Then, post-hysterectomy, lying in the hospital bed unable to sleep (I kid you not...this is actually what I was thinking about)  I wondered if taking a graphite pencil (got lots of those) and just rubbing it across the back of the paper would work.  Just like we used to do in elementary school.  Two days later I was home, bored, and feeling no pain and I did just that.  Then I set the print out on top of the stand on the edge of my tub in the master bathroom (it was the perfect height) and just drew over the image with a pencil.  Given that I was still taking the narcotics and feeling no pain, I hoped I wasn't making a big ol' smudgy mess.  But when I lifted the paper up, I saw this...

The happy joyous feeling I felt had nothing to do with pain killing narcotics, I swear.  I almost danced a jig.  I think I did dance a jig actually.

It's now six days since surgery and I'm off the narcotics but still loving this little sweetie.  When my hands are steadier I might take a paint brush and darken things up just a tad but since I like how old and distressed it looks (without any help from me), I might just give it a light coat of wax and just leave it as is.

Since there is no room for a nightstand on one side of my bed, I'm using this little fellow to hold my book and glasses right now.  I think it's way too cute to stay in the bedroom for long, though.

And Paris Gray and I lived happily ever after.



Linking up at these great parties....  Along with Coastal Charm and Shabby Creek Cottage.