Painted Picnic Basket Makeover

A thrift store find gets a bright, new coat of paint and a new job as a storage bin in this painted picnic basket makeover.

I’m Keri from One Mama’s Daily Drama. I love organizing and colorful decor, so this painted picnic basket makeover was a ton of fun to do. Even if you prefer a more subtle color scheme, I think you’ll find this project inspiring.

A thrift store find gets a bright, new coat of paint and is repurposed as a storage bin in this easy painted picnic basket makeover. #kenarry #ideasforthehome

Organizing the kitchen can be overwhelming, particularly if it’s the main hub of your home. Mine serves as the place where we cook, eat, and store a lot of the household items like party supplies.

When it comes to any room in the house, sometimes you just have to hide the clutter. That’s exactly what I did when I painted this picnic basket and turned it into party supply storage.

How to update a picnic basket

Of course, this tutorial will work with any type of basket, especially if it has a lid. After I finished this project, I found a few more baskets and painted them to match.

What you need:

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Craft/DIY Tools Needed:

Supplies Needed:

Picnic basket
Spray paint – I used Rustoleum Paint + Primer Gloss in sun yellow
Craft paint – I used Plaid red apple
Newspaper, to protect work surfaces
Cotton yarn in coordinating colors

simple light brown picnic basket "before"

Instructions:

1. Paint the body of the picnic basket.

Start by painting the main color on the picnic basket. I set my basket up outside on a few sheets of newspaper, then spray painted it with the Rustoleum sun yellow.

hand holding a can of yellow spray paint over a yellow picnic basket

The trick to spray paint is to do several light coats, rather than one heavy coat. I ended up needing just two coats on my basket.

2. Paint the picnic basket accents.

Next, paint the trim and any accent details. I moved my picnic basket indoors and painted the top and bottom edges, plus the handle, using a paintbrush and the Plaid red apple.

hand holding red craft paint and a brush in front of a yellow picnic basket

Let the paint dry according to the package directions. Overnight is ideal.

brush painting red on the edge of a picnic basket lid

3. Make the yarn tassels.

I decided the basket needed a little something more, so I made a few tassels from cotton yarn to hang from the handles.

Start by wrapping the yarn around your hand about 20 times.

hand with blue yarn wrapped around the palm

Carefully slide it off and cut a second piece of yarn that’s roughly 3 times the length of the bundle.

hand holding a short piece of yellow yarn beside a bundle of blue yarn

Then loop that piece of yarn through the top of the bundle and tie it securely.

Next, cut a third piece of yarn that’s roughly the length of your tassel.

hand holding a tiny piece of yellow yarn beside the blue yarn

Shape the top of the tassel and tie the shorter piece of yarn around it, roughly 1/4 the distance from the top.

To finish, use scissors to cut open all the dangling loops and fluff the tassel.

hand holding a blue tassel and separating the ends

I made 3 tassels for my picnic basket. You can easily vary the size of the tassel, depending on how many times you loop the original yarn around your hand.

As a guide, the tassels below are 10, 20, and 30 times around.

3 tassels - blue, red, and blue - sitting on a table

4. Attach the tassels to the picnic basket.

Finally, tie each tassel onto the picnic basket.

yellow painted picnic basket with red trim decorated with red and blue tassels

Fill the basket with whatever supplies you need to store. I used mine to store party supplies, but of course, you could still use it as a picnic basket too.