We turned it into a table, of course! (Update: Check out our how-to on the transformation here.)
But first to back up. We’re lucky participants in The Mystery Thrift Off, an exuberantly fun competition run by the exuberantly fun Lindsey of the blog Better After. Each of the 12 participants were shipped a mystery item that Lindsey found at her local thrift store, and were charged to do an inventive and dramatic makeover. In our case the item was… a plastic cactus. A fuzzy plastic cactus.
As you could probably tell from our post about our “brainstorming process,” we were flummoxed. Our leading idea was to turn it into a drunken cowboy.
NOT what Lindsey had in mind, probably.
So we put out a poll to help figure out what to do, and the results were pretty conclusive that we should do something (anything) else with it.
I have to say, we’re disappointed that pretty much none of you wanted us to open a restaurant.
Clearly, you were not impressed by our brilliant ideas. Some of you, seeing our desperation, even offered helpful suggestions. We could turn it into a classy, candelabra-style lamp:
Or, we could turn it into awesome, desert style cat furniture:
While we see where you’re going with that one, we gently point out that the scale is just a little off. It would actually look a bit more like this:
But if we learned one thing, it is that if you advertise to the world that you’re going to do a makeover of a fuzzy plastic cactus that was mailed to you in a box covered with green question marks, people will keep asking about it.
We’ve been dying to show you, and now we can, as the reveal is live over at Better After!
While you’re there, be sure to take a look at all the other fun and brilliant projects by the other participants running throughout this week, and to come back to Better After later this week to vote for your favorite (ours, obviously) across three categories: Most Creative, Best Case of Using What Ya Got, and The Better After Award.
And don’t worry, next week we’ll be sharing the full behind-the-scenes of how we went from fuzzy plastic cactus to the most beautiful table you’ve ever seen. (Update: here it is!)
(Sharing at Weekend Re-Treat Link Party)
That’s a really flattering picture of Owen. Could he borrow that for his LinkedIn profile??
What’s ours is Owen’s! I think it really captures his “what are you gonna do about it NOTHING that’s what” vibe.
Best possible use of that useless item, the table looks great!
Thank you! The shape was actually pretty cool… under all that sawdust and glue.
Wow, I clicked through to the final project and it was really cute. Who knew white paint could fix that sculpture. 🙂
I was actually thinking about that plastic cactus the other day wondering what you guys would come up with. I think the table is fabulous and never would have thought of doing that. Great job!
Thanks Rosy! Glad to know our plastic cactus pops into your mind sometimes 🙂
We’re thinking of you, sending many positive thoughts your way.
just saw the table and it is beyond amazing! i am totally impressed!
Aww, thanks Cassie! We’re just relieved we came up with something and didn’t terribly embarrass ourselves alongside all the awesome other competitors.
…and what fine result the table is … WINNERS!! Congratulations on winning the big ‘Mystery Thrift Off’ prize! It was a lot of fun seeing what everyone came up with. It was great to be a part of it.
Awww, thanks Denise! We had a blast, glad you did too! We were sitting around the other day trying to figure out what we would have done with those olive trays, it was a tough one! I agree, so great to see everyone else’s creative ideas!
Way to go! Found you on Better After, LOVE your cactus table!
Thanks Kim! Today we posted all the gory details of how we made it, if you’re interested 🙂 (http://www.plasteranddisaster.com/turning-a-plastic-cactus-into-a-side-table-or-things-we-never-thought-wed-have-to-do/)