Basket Weaving 101

Good morning friends. I updated Welcome to the Garden Spot last night and got ahead a bit on my blogging. Keeping two bogs up can be somewhat challenging. I have a busy day so this will be sort.

This is the farm table that I shared with you a couple of posts ago. I absolutely adore it and it looks so cute in the farmhouse.



I have already painted the lowered part white using the white Delta acrylic paint. I gave it a quick rub down with a very light weight sanding block before I painted.

I searched Pinterest, Wayfair, and Burch Lane to get some ideas as how to finish the table. I liked the dark stained top, so next I went to the garage to get an old can of Early American Maple. In the Blue Farm house, I used an unnamed lighter stain to resemble oak. Unnamed because it had to be mixed to match existing wood trim and flooring in the old house. This time I want a rich, dark finish.

With the Bellingham I am free to choose my own colors. Yay.

Using a scrap of the flooring that I will be putting down, I first stained it to make sure that I would like the shade. Love it. I also taped the sides to keep from getting stain on the white. I sanded the white paint with a wadded brown paper lunch bag, giving the paint an nice sheen, while not rubbing off the paint.

Rubbed on with a soft cloth, stain absorbs into the wood quickly and drys quickly, so I rubbed on several coats in a few minutes, liking the effect very much.

And here it is in the kitchen. I painted one of the chairs with one coat of white. While real life dining sets often have chairs that are both stained and painted, I decided to paint the chairs white. They would be adorable with stained seats, but that would be nearly impossible to do without getting stain on paint. They will get one coat of paint because two coats begin to look gloppy.

Basket Weaving 101

The next night I tried my hand at making a basket that I will fill with pretty little bath towels that I will make, inspired by Studio Dollhouse Miniatures By: Elizabeth. She makes the cutest little basket filled with towels that she cut out from dollar store baby washcloths. So cute. 

If you follow Cinderella Moments  (and you should), you have seen her simple little basket that she wove using kitchen twine. I had purchased a package of heavy crochet thread so I used that instead. Here are my results. (Click on the link to see the little basket that she made with easy instructions.)

While Caroline used wire for her basket, not having any I used tooth picks. I cute a small piece of wood an inch long and anchored it in place on piece of styrofoam.

Tooth picks are sharp and pokey, so be careful. Next time I will either use wire or cut the tooth picks down first to make the weaving easier then trim them down to size when when I am done weaving.

Weaving is tricky and I have a few boo-boos, but I liked the result. Following Caroline's instructions, I coated the basked with Modge Podge to give it body then I cut down the tooth picks.

To finish the top, I braided the thread and glued it on top. While not perfect--I consider it my test 

run--, it did turn out pretty cute. I need more practice at weaving. I think earned a C in Basket Weaving 101-- a C for effort.

If you read my Garden Spot blog, you will know that I am on chore duty while my husband works out of town helping friends thrash 2500 acres of corn. He has been gone over a week now and hopefully will be home by Thursday. So now I have to get dressed to go out and feed the horses and hens. I'll be back soon with more projects completed on the farm house and with a a question or two on wallpaper.

Thanks so much for visiting. Love to read your comments.