Potting Bench and Ladder Plant Stand

Building a Potting Bench

I’ve been wanting a potting bench on my deck for awhile. Not just for potting plants, but also to use as a drink station when having friends and family over for cookouts. And because I think they’re so cute.

Feeling confident in my woodworking skills, I decided I could build one myself fairly easily. After looking at tons of photos on Pinterest, I found my inspiration photo – isn’t that one just gorgeous?!

I researched building plans on Ana White and other sites, and was about to invest in the supplies, when I ran into a simple, cheap potting bench kit on Amazon. It had fairly decent reviews, and for $69, sounded like a good deal, so I decided why not save myself some trouble.

Ok, it went together fairly easily, but it was just thin teak boards. I left off the drawer and put a sealer on it, and it sat on my deck like that for the first year. I did use it as a drink station a couple times, but it was so rickety and hard to move that I really didn’t use it much. At that point, I was wishing I had just built a sturdy one with real wood. Which I would probably have to do anyway, since this one wouldn’t last another year.

In going back looking at my inspiration photo to consider building another one, I realized I could actually rebuild my pitiful potting bench stronger and more like the look I wanted. All I needed to do was add dog-ear fence posts across the back, which would strengthen it and add the look I wanted. And for better mobility, I decided to cut the legs off and add locking casters.

I removed that tacky lattice board, nailed on the fence boards that I had cut to length with my trusty nail gun. It was easiest to measure, mark the center of the potting bench boards and start with the middle board centered, which I nailed to the top, middle and bottom boards. Then just went out in each direction so the sides ended evenly.

Of course, I also had to paint it creamy white, after a coat of Kilz primer. I got some nice casters off Amazon and screwed them to the bottom after cutting off the legs.

Now, my potting bench/drink station is perfect! Sturdy, moveable and cute!

Cute Little Ladder Plant Stand

I had saved this inspiration photo from Pinterest of a cute little ladder plant stand quite awhile back. I just love the distressing and the gorgeous mint green color.

So, when cleaning out Mom’s house and yard, I ran across a cute little ladder – painted that ugly burgundy that she painted everything. Literally everything. But I knew I could transform it close to my inspiration photo.

After a couple coats of Kilz primer, I mixed up some homemade chalk paint and put two coats of that on. Then just distressed with a sanding pad to get some of the white to show back through. Perfect!

Oh, and the cool coal bucket came from Mom’s too. I started to toss it because of course she had painted it burgundy, so it was hideous. But I sprayed it with paint remover, revealing the beautiful galvanized steel. It served as a nice pot for my aloe vera plants this summer.