It must be the mountain of dirty clothes in my laundry room, that has inspired me to work on laundry baskets lately. Mind, you, it hasn’t inspired me to wash, dry, and put away the mountain of clothes, it has just made me want nicer baskets to put it all in. Except for the industrial style laundry cart I finished for my son last week, the rest of our laundry baskets are all plastic, and there are never enough of them.
A few weeks ago, my husband was trying to clear a path in my overflowing workshop, and he brought out a wicker basket I’ve had for quite a few years. I’m not sure how it ended up in the workshop, filled with junk, but I was glad he found it. It’s maybe 10 years old, and not a high quality basket, but I needed a basket to put in the guest room, and knew this would look much better than a plastic one…once it got a makeover.
I wanted to give it some “age”, and make it look similar to French antique baskets that that have a pretty, gray washed look, and I knew that wouldn’t be difficult to achieve.
I painted a quick coat of leftover gray paint all over it, and once it dried, I used a junky brush to”smoosh” wax into the crevices of the basket. I used my dusting brush to apply some Antiquing Powder on the wax, working it into those crevices well.
I used a rag to wipe off the excess, leaving a nice dusting of powder in those cracks, where an antique basket would normally have dust settle. It’a a subtle change, but it’s the difference between a basket that just looks painted, and a basket that looks aged.
My oldest son is living in my guest room right now, until he finds an apartment, so it’s filled with his clothes and belongings, but it will make a pretty and useful addition to the room, and my guests won’t have to look at our ugly plastic laundry baskets.
If I come across another basket like it, I’ll make one for my bedroom too!
Today’s Sponsor!
Oh I love it Angie! I’d reconsider those orangey baskets now that I’ve seen what you did to yours! What kind of base paint did you use? Did you find it cured well on the basket?
Donna, I just used regular satin latex paint, mixed with Blue Minerals Chalk Powder.
Lovely! I have about 5 of these that look like new…I am going to make them old and French with the lace liner sticking out. Thanks for the idea because I was going to make them white!
I love how the antiquing powder settled into the crevices and really made the basket look so vintage. Love the look!
I love these baskets.. I had a neighbor years ago who lined one just like yours with some plastic & planted all sorts of lacy, drapey wildflowers in it… it was the prettiest garden basket I have ever seen <3 I have always wanted to try to recreate her look.. your basket redo reminded me of it so i may just give that a shot next spring! 🙂