Hi everyone! Our beautiful and talented host Terrie atdecorateandmorewithtip.com asked me to team up in this months challenge  again with some amazing ladies to do an Anthropologie basket challenge. Make sure to check out the links below to see what they came up with!

The challenge So the challenge was to make our baskets resemble the one on the picture below. I have to say it looked easy but boy it ended up being hard from the very start, therefore this project certainly lived up to its name challenge! and challenge it was!! Well as you can see mine didn’t quite come out like it. From the very start I was unable to come across the jute rope and when I did finally find it, it was just far to expensive so plan A went out the door.. So plan B was actioned!

My project is my laundry basket which was heading for the shed for its retirement or heading for the trash then my mind was changed when I was asked to team up in the challenge! As you can see below it’s not a pretty site hey?

below is the one that we needed to replicate. Umm! Mine came out nothing like it but how and ever I continued on, after all I did start it and I was on a mission to finish it regardless how it was going to end up like!

Since I newly gutted and renovated the bathroom I needed something that would blend in with the look!

Making the lid The first thing it needed which it didn’t have , was a lid… I purchased some plywood for $7.00 and got my hubby to cut a circle shape with his jig saw to fit the right size of the basket.

I had this little wooden trim that I purchased from a craft shop for $3.00 and decided to use it in the centre of the lid so I could use around the handle. I also decided to only paint the middle section of the lid where the little wooden trim would go because the rest of the lid would have rope around it!

I placed the trim piece in the centre so I knew where to glue my first piece of rope. I once I had my first piece of rope glued I was able to remove the wooden trim to glue the remainder rope making sure I was glueing it tight together so I could see no gaps and continued in a circle till I wrapped all the plywood lid with rope.

I then glued on the wooden trim and drilled a hole in the centre and placed a little glass handle that I had left over from another project!

I got my hubby to make me some wooden pieces that I could glue underneath the lid so it would stop it from sliding off. That was the lid completed.

Painting the Laundry Basket

When I finished glueing the rope around the lid I gave it a quick coat of white linen chalk paint! I was already painting up some furniture pieces so why not give it a fresh coat right? Sorry about the painted hands but what’s a girl gotta do when she is working lol!

I then decided to paint the bottom part basket in the same colour as I painted my bathroom wall. I decided to spray paint the top half in chrome.

Weaving the wool/Macramme around the basketI decided to weaves one wool that I had around the top of the basket. I first glued a piece of rope around the top leaving some spaces so could insert the wool to start the weave. I simply just looped the wool around the glued rope. I used two pieces of wool for a thicker look and i doubled the length of the wool by the length of the basket so I wouldn’t run out, but I did!!!! I paid around $2.00 for the spool of wool in a thrift store around three years ago and this is the first time I used it , which I’m happy 🙂

I had no idea how to do this so I took an idea from you tube and wasn’t successful so I decided to just use the simple net look which is pretty easy to do and just use my head to work out the pattern I got here

I wanted the pattern to be on the top half of the basket so I glued a piece of rope around the center of the basket as a guide so I could work the pattern to the centre point.

Well as you can see from below my basket went in an opposite direction to what I wanted it to turn out like and that’s ok because with DIY projects sometimes they just take on a different dimension than you planned.

At the end of the day I’m happy with my achievement and I’m thinking it’s going to blend in very well with the decor in my bathroom .. Sometimes we just have to go with the flow.. And this was one of those times. (Plus I did already have a basket that looks like the one we were replicating!)

Products I used for the project.

Glue gun and glue rope, chrome spray , wool , wooden trim and glass handle. I used some left over paint from my bathroom wall colour, it was too big of a tub to fit in this photo! Therefore any water based paint will work ok!

The final look

This is how I’ve styled it

Don’t forget to check out the links to the other ladies challenges . You won’t be disappointed!!

Decorate and More with Tip ¦ Pandora’s box ¦LeCultivateur

This Full Life 5 ¦K’s Olympic Nest¦Barnhousemess

Uncommon Designs¦Savvy in the Suburbs¦Chasing Quaintness

Sweet Southern Grace¦Bluesky at Home¦Through a Vintage Door

Jessica Simmons

Terrie over at Decorate and More with Tip
Patti over at Pandora’s box
Emily over at LeCultivateur
Dori over at This Full Life 5
Kelli over at K’s Olympic Nest
Danya over at Barnhousemess
Trish over at Uncommon Designs
Sheri over at Savvy in the Suburbs
Benita over at Chasing Quaintness
Shae over at Sweet Southern Grace
Carol over at Bluesky at Home
Teresa over at Through a Vintage Door
Jessica over at Jessica Simmons