Wicker Chest Makeover

I found this wicker chest for $7.50 on one of my recent trips to the thrift store, and I was super excited because I have been looking for something to hold my kids' dress-up clothes. It was in relatively good shape, but definitely needed a facelift, so I decided to paint it.

My first thought was to spray paint wide navy stripes, so I got out the painters tape and plastic and created a pattern. I immediately suspected failure however, because the tape was not sticking at all. But I decided to follow through just to see what would happen.

After I finished taping off, I put on a glove and held down the tape in the areas I was spray painting to try to eliminate over spray. It worked ok, but didn't eliminate the problem completely.

The bigger issue was that the paint was glossy and the color was more royal blue than I wanted. It just looked horrible and not very wicker-like. So then I sprayed the whole top blue. Even worse. And so I cut my losses (a single can of spray paint) and bought a tester size of Midnight Dream by Behr in a flat sheen and painted over it. Much better. Once the blue was dry, I used some leftover pink and painted smaller stripes to give it a little pop and tie into the colors of the playroom.

I think I'm glad I sprayed first, because it did a great job of covering all the grooves and crevices, which would have been a pain with a paint brush. So in the end, I don't think I regret it, but just like many DIY projects, I have learned a lot. Total cost for this project was $14!

Any of you have big DIY plans for the weekend? I'd love to hear!