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Cottage On Bunker Hill

Cottage On Bunker Hill

Home & Garden in New England

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Upcycled DIY Potting Bench

In: GARDENING, Gardening Project Ideas

This year I expanded my vegetable garden space to make room for a flower cutting garden. You can see my garden expansion HERE. I spent the Winter looking at pretty pictures of English and French cottage gardens, and I have an idea in my head of what I hope mine will look like this Summer!

One thing I fell in love with was the idea of a romantic-looking potting bench in the garden…now to find something I could transform. We live near a big university and the students were moving out for the year; my husband told me he had driven by a big apartment building and there was a huge dumpster filled with all kinds of furniture….start the car, let’s go!!

From the street I spied a white vanity sitting next to a dumpster…it turned out to be a perfect size and in amazing condition!! My husband was just psyched that my dumpster diving expedition was over in 2 minutes. Let me show you how I upcycled a dumpster vanity into an upcycled DIY potting bench…

Upcycled DIY Potting Bench

It was a perfect weekend to work on a project…we had so much rain so the table full of plants in the background had to wait a few more days until I could plant them. I removed the mirror from the vanity and cleaned down the soon-to-be potting table to remove all the dirt.

Base Coat

Pop Of Color Paints

My first step was to give the entire table a coat of light turquoise paint. Wow, what a difference a little paint made!!

light turquoise table

The bright color really brought out all the pretty details of the table! I let the paint dry completely before the next step.

Highlight The Details

My favorite way to highlight the details of a furniture piece I’m working on is to dry brush different colors over the base color.

Dry brushing is a technique where you lightly dip the end of a straight paint brush into your paint, then dab/tap off most of the paint (I use a paper towel to dab off the excess paint) before lightly passing your paintbrush over your piece.

This helps any details really pop and make them stand out.

closeup of table leg.

Look how a little bit of Griege paint brought out all the details!

I let the greige paint dry before doing the same dry brushing technique using a terra cotta shade that gave an earthy tone over the entire potting bench table.

Look how the turquoise and terra cotta play off of each other…isn’t it so pretty!!

diy potting bench detail picture
Pop of Color Terra Cotta Paint with Light Turquoise
leg of diy potting bench

Since I’m using this outside as a potting bench, my final step was to brush on a satin polyacrylic to protect it.


Let’s Head To The Garden!

Once the polyacrylic top coat was dry it was time to move it into my garden and see if my cottage dreams would come true!!!

I think they definitely did!!!

french country potting bench

It was a perfect morning to test out my DIY potting bench! Some of my fragrant lilacs are blooming and I needed to bring in an armful to enjoy.

French Country DIY Potting Bench

…and my pot of pansies is still going strong!!

pansies in a vintage baskte

Gardening Ideas

zinnias with foliage in background
basket of hydrangeas
Daylilies flowering

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Jennifer Howard

cottage on bunker hill

Thanks for stopping by today! Being able to share my projects, DIYs, and decorating ideas with you is amazing. Leave a comment below; I love hearing from you! Feel free to drop me a note here if you have any questions.

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By: Jennifer Howard · In: GARDENING, Gardening Project Ideas · Tagged: diy, gardening

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rachel Harper says

    August 6, 2021 at 11:49 am

    Jennifer,
    This turned out so cute. I plan to share your link on my Dirt Road Adventures this Sunday.

    Reply
  2. Cindy Long says

    June 5, 2021 at 9:06 am

    Super, super cute Jen! I love how the colors make the bench look a little old and rusty!

    Reply
    • Jennifer Howard says

      June 5, 2021 at 5:09 pm

      Thanks so much Cindy!! I really love how the colors look together!!

      Reply

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Hey friends, I'm so glad you are here! I'm a life-long New England gal who started Cottage On Bunker Hill as a hub to share all my DIYs, decorating ideas, budget shopping ideas and so much more!!

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