Basket Makeover with Paint and Water

A few weeks ago I hosted a bridal shower for my daughter that included a popcorn bar for our guests.  For the event I purchased these rustic harvest baskets from a local shop in Pigeon Forge and used them to hold the popcorn and the many toppings to add to the treat. 

Afterwards, I gave away a few of the baskets but still ended up bringing home a stack of unfinished harvest baskets that I now needed to re-purpose somehow. 

I don’t have room to store them in my craft room so beware that you will see these baskets show up in several new projects this Spring and Summer.  My first project was to use the largest of the baskets, add some paint and water for a washed out and worn effect for a towel basket for my master bath.

 

 

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The popcorn bar was a lot of fun to pull together.  When I first sent the invitations, I got several questions back about what exactly was a popcorn bar.  Or they admitted they came to the party not exactly sure of what would be going on.  Which I thought was funny because I thought everyone had heard of a popcorn bar!

In the end though, nearly everyone took home extra bags of salty and sweet mixes for snacks.  In my house we had popcorn snacks for a week and I didn’t even bring home the peanuts or the M&M’s with me.  Best to keep that temptation out of the house before the wedding.  My waistline will thank me.

 

Unfortunately because of the current world situation, we had to move the wedding to August!

 

Since I am currently updating the decor in my master bathroom, I decided that the large basket we used to hold the popcorn would be perfect  to use for the basket makeover to hold extra towels.  However, the rustic and unfinished wood of the basket was not the look I wanted for the room.  My master bath decor will have mostly navy and blues and a touch of green so I needed to update the basket somehow.

Spray painting the basket would have been the easiest solution but with lots of rain and cold weather these days in TN, I just couldn’t get outside to spray paint the basket.  I also didn’t want to just paint it in a solid color and hide the texture of the wood.  Instead, I decided to do a color wash on the basket with a mixture of acrylic paint and water.

 

 

 

For the paint and water mixture, I used 1 tablespoon of navy colored acrylic craft paint to 2 tablespoons of water and mixed them together in a plastic cup.

The wood of the basket was very thin and porous so the water and paint mixture soaked immediately into the wood at different stages depending on how much water and paint was on the brush each time.  My goal was to make this basket look like a worn pair of denim jeans in color and the paint wash achieved exactly that look.

 

The second coat of paint looked even better!

 

 

With using a water mixture, I had to do this process in stages and with different batches of paint mixture, but the variations in colors on the basket and on the different strips of wood make it look very unique and rustic.

 

 

I will to let you know that with the water in the mix the basket needs to dry out completely before adding a second coat.  So this wasn’t just a quick project that took just an hour to do.  It may have only taken less than an hour to apply the paint and water mixture, but the drying time added an extra step and time to the project. 

To give the basket even more of a rustic worn look, I covered the wire handles with twine to add more texture to the basket.

 

 

I really liked the way this basket looked when it was complete.  In fact I like it so much that I took two of the smaller peck harvest baskets that were not going to be used at the wedding for s’mores supply baskets, and updated them as well for future projects around my home.

Another one in the navy finish that I am totally crazy about the faded jeans effect it created, and the second one with a green grass color that will be part of my Spring mantel display.

 

 

I have used these same rustic harvest baskets in projects before and you can see them in the posts listed below.

 

This project was fun and I am glad I figured out a way to reuse the baskets I purchased for the bridal shower somewhere in my home.  If these basket seem familiar, I have used these baskets before in a Painted Harvest Basket project last fall that used stain and dry brushing with acrylic paint in fall colors.  I also used an unfinished one to dress up my Easy Thanksgiving Table Decor in a second post.  At just $3 and $4 a basket, I love using them for seasonal decorations.

 

 

 

 

 

After the wedding, I am not sure what I will do the last of the baskets, but since they are so versatile for use, I’m sure I will find another fall or winter project for them.  Be sure to come back and see what I make with them.

 

“Be strong in the Lord, and in His mighty power.”  Ephesians 6:10