Repurposed Cafe Stool . . . let me count the ways

One thing you forget about kittens when you’ve had older cats for some time is how curious they are when they’re young, and how mischievous.

We have a huge umbrella plant (it’s more a tree than a plant at this point) that started out in a standard 4 or 5 inch pot we picked up at some greenhouse or grocery store plant sale several years ago. Jim’s cut it back two or three times now in the last couple of years and it’s thriving.

Last year we got a couple of new kittens from the shelter, pretty Maine Coon mixes ~ having forgotten about kittens’ affection for climbing into, onto, around, over, and through almost anything. You, no doubt, begin to see the problem.

Well, Hugo managed to take the plant down the other day, big ceramic pot, heavy wrought iron plant stand and all. When I found out about it, I was instantly ticked. (I find it by turns annoying and hilarious that this dictation program won’t let me swear ~ or at least won’t transcribe my swears. Prude.)

Irrational, I know. He’s a kitten, for all he weighs 13 pounds and thinks he’s a miniature panther. And he’s his own person, who will, one hopes, chill out as he gets older and become more cuddly, like our other kitten, Harlequin, aka Mei Mei [“little sister”].

One also hopes he will lose interest in climbing to the top of whatever surface you are around (he has separation anxiety issues ~ you should see him try to hold the door closed when I get ready to leave the house) but for now the problem remains.

Solution: new plant stand ~ something more sturdy with a broader base that would be less easy to pull over ~ and that idea was buzzing around in the back of my mind when I went to spend the morning with my sister, Cherie.

I was still simmering about the whole thing and didn’t want to have to spend the money for the kind of planter that I would want in my bedroom because my silly cat couldn’t learn to stay out of the tree that the umbrella plant had become.

So, as I often do when I’m looking for something that hasn’t quite taken complete shape in my mind (and just because it’s fun), I decided to go to the perennial garage sale on Chestnut and look around and see what they had in the way of planters. I didn’t really hold out much hope for finding what I was looking for ~ the inventory at the perennial garage sale is naturally fluid ~ but what the heck.

I was telling Cherie what I wanted, telling her the story of my evil cat Hugo, and she was laughing, of course, but what she was also doing as we looked and talked was helping me to visualize what I needed ~ something that the ceramic pot would set down in, giving it more stability, but still tall enough that the plant would get the sunlight it needs, something nice-looking, in keeping with what I loosely call the décor of our home.

We wandered through the warehouse ~ run by a local businessman and staffed by volunteers to benefit the Boys and Girls Clubs ~ seeing a few plant stands and tables but nothing quite right. We were wandering through for the second or third time, talking about what else might work, when we found one lone cafe stool in a dusty row of barstool-high seats.

Black wrought iron with a wicker back panel in good shape, a wicker seat that had begun to come unraveled, and it was missing both the rubber feet on the right side

Perfect.

After 45 minutes or so, and with the aid of some old clothes pins that turned out to be the perfect diameter, the old café stool was transformed into the perfect plant stand, made entirely of re-purposed materials. My friend Katie R., re-purposing genius, will be so proud of me!

Old café stool: $3 (that will go to a good cause).

Spending the morning with my sister, laughing and talking and, between us, finding such a cool a solution; and transforming  an old stool destined for the landfill into a beautiful, sturdy, almost elegant, plant stand (that Hugo would have to be a real panther to knock over):     Priceless.

See you on the green ~

Rebecca