Repurposed Pet Bowl Stand
We lost our beloved dog a few months ago. As a memento, I repurposed his food stand into a planter.
This is how it looked before I began. There was some water damage to the finish from Charlie’s water bowl.
I measured the dimensions of each bowl opening, as well as the height. I went off to the store to find flower pots that might fit. The closest I came was a 6” pot. It was about 1/8 of an inch wider than the opening, but I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.
They fit perfectly! I pushed down on the pots to make sure they would be able to hold the weight of the soil and water. Otherwise, I would have needed to create some kind of support at the bottom. But it was nice and firm and didn’t budge! So that made this project super easy!
I washed the wood with TSP and sanded it, using a multi-tool. The multi-tool worked great to get into the corners.
I’d been wanting to try the bleached wood trend and thought this would be a good piece to practice on. I brushed on two coats of bleach, allowing for dry time between. Once the second coat was dry, I washed it down with water and a rag.
The next step was to seal the wood as it looked quite dry from the sanding and bleaching. I went with raw linseed oil as it is non toxic. After the annual flowers die in the fall I plan to bring this inside and didn’t want to use anything toxic, as our new kitten loves to play with the house plants! I applied the oil using a foam brush.
Safety note: Rags used with linseed my begin to burn by themselves. It’s important to put rags in water or lay flat to dry.
After it was dry, I realized that the bleached effect was completely gone!! The linseed oil gave it a much darker and richer wood colour. I don’t actualy mind it. But I’ll definitely keep this in mind if I try bleaching wood again! If I had worked on a big cabinet and this happened...I may have cried. 
I planted annual flowers in the pots...and done!
I’m sure I’ll reminisce about my sweet Charlie boy every time I look at this planter for years to come. 
Comments
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So sweet!
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What a beautiful and thoughtful way to remember Charlie. Just love this idea. So creative.❤️
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Thank you so much, Laurie. ❤️
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