Well, what do you know?  I have another piece of furniture to share today and it’s another piece that was gifted to me by Vanessa from Iowa.

If you’re keeping track, so far I’ve shared the drawers that she gave me …

and a toolbox that she sent up …

and of course that beautiful radio cabinet.

I’m so lucky to have such a generous reader.  Thank you so much Vanessa!

That’s brings me to today’s project.

Is it a small side table?  Is it a plant stand?  I guess it could be either.

The first step was to send this piece over to handyman Ken’s workshop to be tightened up.  It was a little wobbly.  He re-glued the joints and tightened up some screws and now it’s quite sturdy.

Next up I gave it a brief scuff sanding all over followed by cleaning away any dirt and dust.

Once again (much like with the sanctuary cabinet) I didn’t bother with Bonding Boss.  The existing finish was quite dry, so I wasn’t worried about adhesion.  In addition, I was planning on using a dark color so I wasn’t worried about any sort of bleed thru.

That brings me to my color choice.  I have to admit that I got it wrong the first time.  I initially painted it in Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean.

I wrote about this color being the ‘new black’ when I used it on this banker’s chair …

And indeed I have used it in place of black on several pieces since then.

So I painted the table in Coffee Bean, and then added a stencil in Dixie Belle’s Putty which they call a muted taupe.  This combination ended up reading too brown/beige for me.

It seems funny since I do really like both of these paint colors by themselves.  I just didn’t care for the combination I guess.

So I sanded down the stencil and painted back over everything with Dixie Belle’s Caviar.

I consider this to be the blackest of the black shades offered by Dixie Belle.

Once the paint was dry, I once again added a stencil to the lower shelf of the table, this time using Dixie Belle’s Ecru.

That stencil is one of the 8″ German Grain Sack stencils from Ellen J Goods.

Next up I taped off a Swiss cross on the top of the table and painted it in Ecru as well.  Did you know that approximately 62% of the population in Switzerland speaks German?  So I think it’s safe to call this a Swiss plant stand.

Once dry, I sanded over the entire piece using one of Dixie Belle’s sanding sponges.  I like using the sponges on curvy things like the legs of this table.

It’s easier to make them look as though they were worn over time.

To finish I mixed some of Dixie Belle’s brown wax into their Big Mama’s Butta and applied it with a large waxing brush.  I follow that up by buffing away any excess with an old t-shirt.

I like to mix the brown wax into the Big Mama’s Butta because it adds a little bit of extra depth when applied over dark colors.  It also tones down the look of lighter colors to give them more age.

My original plan was to sell this table, but then I realized that it might work really well for me as a winter plant stand.

I don’t have any houseplants that live inside all year ’round, but I do bring plants inside to over-winter them.  This year I’m planning to overwinter some more rex begonias, and of course that myrtle topiary that is currently in the fairy garden.  I also have a large Norfolk Island Pine that comes in for the winter.  It might help to have another surface to put plants on this year.

Then again, maybe I’ll list it for sale and see what happens.  If you’re interested, be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.