As promised in this pop-up weekend post, I am here to share with you our Ikea haul from Saturday.  We only had a total of 20 minutes to shop (one day, ONE day I will get some quality time with that store) so there was no messing around. I had to stick to my list.

But before we get to lists and purchases, lets back up to what spawned this quick trip in the first place:

Unfortunately this is the best before shot I have since Chris got right to sanding all of the…orange…stain off.  Although, maybe that is a fortunate event because, woot!, the job got done quickly!! By the end of the evening I was wiping all the dust from our, now naked, bench and prepping it for fresh stain.

We decided to go with a dark, rich, warm stain–Minwax’s Dark Walnut.   It said it would take around 8 hours to dry and it actually took 3 days before it was completely not tacky.

All of the waiting feels worth it because the result is a bench much more up our alley.  It is darker and has a slightly more rustic feeling with the original clean lines even more apparent.

And what did we stop by Ikea to get that has to do with this bench?  Ikea has the best prices on pots, of course! And while we were there we picked up some plants, too.

They are all pretty low-maintenance.  They just need full, indirect sunlight (which makes this location perfect), and watering once or twice a month.  I think I can handle that.  I was actually looking for something that I could water more often because ever since Greta spent a few days with her plant-loving “Papa Ginger” (my mom) she loves to water things. I catch her filling up a Neti-pot and walking around the yard watering our weeds.  Lovely.

I do believe it is safe to say we are anxious to get more plants around the house and even added to this bench.  And can you imagine getting a bold pot mixed in there as well?  Mmmm.

I will keep these alive.  I will keep these alive. I will keep these alive.

So that’s the story of our bench find that got a little life injected into it and on top of it.  The rest of the living room is still in disarray, but this nook feels right.  Anyone else have a dedicated spot for house plants or do you douse your house with them?  We’re working on spreading more life around our whole place.  It makes such a difference.