Easiest Project Ever…Distressing an Olive Basket

OK.  I hate looser thieves that come and steal your ideas and blog them as their own!  So I am just gonna tell you right up front that this post is about trying out someone else’s project.  Yvonne over at Stonegableblog.com ( I apologize right now because for some reason I am not able to link or grab her button) has this really great idea for the easiest project ever – distressing an Olive basket!  If you get a chance go on over to her blog…I think you will become a fan just as I have!

If you are like me, my first thought was what the heck is an olive basket and why are people paying over $100.00 for one? Olive baskets are used to harvest olives.  Right now you will see them at  flea markets, antique stores, etc for a pretty hefty price tag.  They are absolutely beautifully aged and worn.  Would LOVE one, but let’s face it, this girl isn’t paying $100.00 for one!  Yvonne found one at Wal-Mart for $9.88.  I know, crazy right?  The only thing it is missing is the beautiful patina.

As soon as I read this I got on line to see if my Wal-Mart had one. Nope.  Out of stock.  And to top it off they are no longer available on-line. Apparently everyone is reading Stonegableblog.com! So I checked in with all Wal-Mart’s in a 30 mile radius and low and behold one in the next town over had one left!  I bought it on-line and arranged to pick it up that day.  Ya gotta love that!

 

So here is what it looks like brand new.  In all of it’s galvanized shinny glory. Pretty but still too shiny!  Yvonne has a special recipe that you can use to give the basket a lovely patina.  Toilet Bowl cleaner.  Yup.  You read that right.  Toilet bowl cleaner.  She recommended using Zep Acid Toilet Bowl Cleaner.  Which I couldn’t find.  However, her second choice was Lysol.

 

 

Yvonne did hers outside in a nice big tub, which I don’t have. I decided to use one of my guest tubs which are porcelain. Just slather the lysol all over it and wait about thirty minutes according to her directions.  Well,  not much had happened in that time so I left it on about an hour longer. OK…so I forgot that I was distressing an olive basket…don’t judge! Anyway, it hadn’t aged like Yvonne’s basket had, but it had been on there so long that I figures that it wasn’t going to corrode any further.  I took steel wool and scrubbed and washed it all off.

 

 

Not as corroded and gold looking as the Stonegable one but I still liked the finished result. It had darker spots all over and it had some really great depth to it.  Me likey!

 

 

I had chosen some tall plants for it but they weren’t as tall as the basket.  I placed an old container from a previous plant in the basket upside down to give the plant some height.

 

 

It worked like a charm. I just add some sweet potato vine to the pot the Bacca’s flowers ( that is the tall purple plant) came in and plopped it right in my olive basket!  This is my finished result.  I really like it in my herb garden…gives it some bling!

This project took longer to shop for the flowers than it did to actually do it.  Especially if my ADD hadn’t kicked in and I hadn’t forgotten that I was distressing the olive basket!  I think I might have spent a total of $20.00 for the basket and flowers, maybe.  All in all- a lot of bang for your money, don’t you think?

Until next time….