January 22, 2010

basket case

My first ever DIY FAIL. Ack! Don't you hate these? Okay, this might not be my first ever failure, but it bothers me just the same. Especially because it seemed so easy to execute. You know how it is: you have a vision in your head, it seems simple enough, but somehow the follow through just isn't what you expect it to be? Yeah. My big fat failure came in the form of baskets. Baskets! $4 little white baskets. Pfft.





Trying to stay on track for the office completion, I had been planning on buying some baskets for the sewing table so I'd have a place for all my little goodies an necessities. I found some at IKEA for $4, but the thought of driving about 45 minutes for cheap baskets seemed kind of retroactive. Luckily, I found some at Pier One that were not only $4 on clearance, but they had canvas linings in them! They were white but I thought, Hey, a little spray paint, a little acrylics, and they'll look totally natural! WRONG!







After the first test run (on the bottom of the basket), I started looking for online tutorials. There are no tutorials on how to paint baskets so they look natural! If there is, it's hidden and buried in Google so well, only a team of swashbuckling pirates would be able to dig it up! I tried my painting technique on two more bottoms, and one more side before I finally decided that the whole faux-natural thing was not going to happen.

So now they're sitting in the garage, being re-primed, and I'm formulating a new plan. I'm thinking Apple Green, and Ralph Lauren Smoke Glaze...

Stay tuned.

2 comments:

  1. The reason they didn't come out so well is because, when you buy those type of baskets. They dip them in paint, they don't spray paint them. So maybe you should try dipping them in paint and then hanging them on a wire to dry.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the idea Steph! I decided to just paint over them with a solid color instead. Next time I'll probably try a stain of some sort--after double checking that they haven't been pre-painted.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for dropping by! I love comments and I read each and every one of them. You can also contact me by e-mail if you want to chat!

"Never miss an opportunity to make others happy, even if you have to leave them alone in order to do it."
~ Author Unknown

In other words: Be nice or I will delete you!