This is a crafting/decorating/organizing idea that I came up with rather accidentally! I remember when I was a kid, whenever you went to pick strawberries or went to the farm stand, you brought your berries home in these cute little wooden boxes.
But as time went on, it became harder and harder to find the little wooden boxes. The farm stands now mostly use the cardboard ones (and you don’t even get to keep them when you buy your baskets of produce- they just dump everything in a bag and keep the cardboard baskets.) Imagine my surprise and delight when I found the wooden berry baskets at the farm supply store! What a sense of nostalgia they brought….
I bought a few but didn’t really know what I was going to do with them- I just knew I wanted them! And they were very inexpensive (I think 50 cents to $1.25 each.) I realized that it would be really easy to decorate them and use them for all sorts of things… All you need is some acrylic paint and pretty ribbon and rick rack (if you are anything like me, you’ve been hoarding a bunch of ribbon and trim, just waiting for an excuse to use it up….)
I simply painted the boxes with the acrylic craft paint using a foam brush (it caused the smaller boxes to warp a little bit.) When the paint was dry, I glued on my ribbon. Because there are empty spaces on the corners of the baskets, I cut a piece of ribbon for each side and glued it onto the front
then I tucked the ends into the basket and glued them down (paper clips help hold down ends of ribbon while glue dries)
It was a lot of fun playing with different colors of paint and picking through my huge collection of ribbon! And the kids would have fun making some little decorated boxes to hold little toys and trinkets on their book shelves, desk, dresser, etc. You can also line them with plastic and use them as a planter- aren’t they pretty?
Use them to organize your fat quarters. Or, fill them with fat quarters, wrap it with a bow and give as a gift (ooooohh I would love to receive that as a gift!)
I’m sure you could use these in every room of the house. How about putting a basket or 2 in the bathroom for organizing make-up, hand lotions, etc? Or line the box with a pretty napkin and use them for serving dinner rolls, pretzels, etc. What other uses can you think of for these cute little baskets?
P.S. Congratulations to the winner of my giveaway last week, Sandy A. in St. Louis!
What a clever thing to do…I love your pictures, they are so clear…I really need lessons.
Thanks Barb- my husband has a good camera which I use (Nikon D90 DSLR) and I so some Photoshop editing on my photos.
Just love those adorable baskets!😇❤️🌹🐶
What a great idea – you could paint all kinds of different things on those boxes, and I really like the idea of using them for holding gifts! I will have to see if I can find them anywhere (you don’t know of anywhere on the internet, do you?).
Hi Jennifer- I actually just did a search for “berry baskets” and found these- very inexpensive! I might have to get some more…. I have more ribbon I want to use up ha ha!
http://www.thinkgarnish.com/store/shop-garnish/berry-berry-quite-contrary/
I love this idea since you can decorate them to fit any room in your house. Using them to hold fat quarters is great since they fit perfectly and then you can see them easily.
Judy, I was thinking that they would be really pretty lined up on the shelves of a sewing to hold fat quarters, and you could also use them to organize spools of thread or ribbon. You could line them with fabric so that they can hold small notions.
Spring quilt is gorgeous. We dont get berry baskets in Zimbabwe. But we do get some brands of butter in plastic containers whuch would work just as well.
I personally love the basket full of that super looking fabric. Oh, the possibilities that basket holds and it looks so cute. Great idea!
Hi Amy! Baskets seem to be such a standard or “go-to” way of organizing- I think it’s nice to be able to make them exactly the way you want, instead of having to rely on whatever you can find in the store.
Hi I am new to your blog, love this idea. I started reorganizeing my Happy Room and I can use this for some of my bigger scraps which I have cut into fat quarters. Thank you very much.
I love your instructions on your Save the Bees. I have started on the Little Hen wall hanger..As of this time I can’t post any pictures, hopfuly in the near furture. Thank you
What a great idea! so many uses.
Many years ago, I used stencils to decorate my larger wooden vegetable baskets and made linings for them. They’re still just as pretty. Maybe using spray paint would prevent them from warping.
Would love to do these in fabric (I originally thought they were!). Would be a great way to use up some excess (is there such a thing?!) and create storage space!