Thrilling Thrifties: Wire Basket tutorial

I really just love this idea, I think I'll have to make a stop to the Home Depot this week to get some supplies!

While I love me some Pottery Barn and Ballard Designs, the little Dave Ramsey angel on my shoulder keeps telling me to save my pennies. So every once in awhile I trick him by using random stuff around my house or making very small purchases to create my own versions! Nothing new to you, I'm sure, but hopefully this project will be. I opened my Ballard and PB magazines again this week, and these two items caught my attention:

Pottery Barn

Ballard Design

So I went ahead and made a few of these:

Supplies:

Hardware Cloth

Wire Cutters

26 gauge wire

1. Decide what size you want your baskets to be, and draw up a little sketch, so you can measure and cut one piece out. I used sizes close to the Ballard and PB hanging baskets, but I also created a few small ones for my daughters. The wall ones I made measured 12" wide x 4" deep x 10" tall. I calculated that to wrap a piece around the 10" tall back and 4" deep bottom and 10" tall front, I would need 24". PERFECT since the "cloth" is 24" wide. I cut across one side 20" (12" wide front plus two 4" "wings" that will be the sides). Here's what it looked like after being cut out.

2. Make your creases/folds along the "wings" and then around the bottom and up the back.

3. Unfold and give it a little bit of shape. Don't stress too much about the form, though, until after we "sew" the sides together.

4. Cut your floral wire about 1 1/2 times the size of the side you're going to sew up. Start at one end, and pull the wire almost all the way through. Leave about 1" hanging out, and wrap through that first square a couple times, then weave it up the side.

5. Trim the ends of your wire, and shape your basket out! Easy as that. So for less than $3, and in under 1 hour, I saved $75-90 (depending on the catalog we're hacking here)!

And here they are all prettied up in my mom cave. I created a few labels and printed them out on photo paper, cut them out and then cut out a piece of fabric and sandwiched the mesh and some hot glue between the label and the fabric. Easy to swap out, looks like funky chalkboard paint, but no dust. :)

Curious how I hooked them to the walls?? I researched extensively, tried numerous hooks and nails, and eventually I came up with an innovative idea...wait for it... STAPLES! Yep. Good ol' staple gun across the top. Leaves tiny holes, so they're super easy to hide and/or paint over without patching when the time comes.