Brighten up the season's harvests

Treat some old wicker baskets to some ombre-inspired shading in your favourite hues for an extra-colourful harvest.

Your garden will be starting to flourish as the spring weather warms up so get ready to gather your bounty in personalised baskets sure to bring a smile to your face. Secondhand shops are always a great place to find craft materials like these cheap wicker baskets, which I picked up for between $3 and $6 each. The Resene testpots come in a fantastic range of colours and shades. I did not need a lot of paint from each test pot so the remainder can be used for other projects or even more baskets!

Choosing the paint colours at the Resene Colorshop was a lovely way to spend a wet morning. I tried to use some of the colours in my garden and some of my paints were from the Resene KidzColour range.

You will need: Old wicker baskets, paint – Resene Lumbersider in White for base coat and Resene Lumbersider testpots in your choice of three gradual shades per basket, paintbrushes, old toothbrush, newspaper, masking tape, Varnish (optional).

Paint tips:

When choosing colours, it’s generally best to avoid light colours as they will tend to show up marks sooner.
For extra shimmer and shine, use a Resene FX Metallic testpot for details.
If you want a more natural look, to blend into a backyard, Resene wood stains come in testpots too.

Step 1
You will need to choose a dark, medium and light testpot in your chosen colour. You could also just select one dark colour and then add white paint to the testpot to lighten the shade for the other two bands.

Step 2a
Give your basket a brush over to remove any dust. An old toothbrush works well.

Step 2b
Remember to always put newspaper down before you paint. You only need a small amount of paint on your brush, too much and it just runs.

Step 2c
I gave my baskets a light base coat of white paint to help reduce the orange of the wicker. Allow the white paint to dry before you apply the coloured paint.

Step 3a
Masking tape is useful to separate the three different shaded colour bands that you are painting, but you could also just paint the bands freehand without tape.

Step 3b
I learnt it was best to change the newspaper between each shade of colour to save the baskets getting covered in the previous colour.

Step 3c
Remember to allow the paint to dry before adding the next band of colour. Use a small paintbrush to fill any gaps.

Step 4
My tree was a great place to hang the finished baskets to dry. You can give the baskets a coat of Resene Clearcoat UVS to protect the paint, but a bit of wear and tear on the paint just shows it has been used.

Step 5
All that is left to do is to use your basket to collect produce from your garden. The baskets make great gifts especially if there is something homegrown or foraged in them. You could even use them to display plants for sale at your next school gala or make lots of baskets and sell them to fundraise for your garden projects.

I hope you enjoy this project, it would be lovely to hear how you get on.

Words & photos Diane Turner

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