Faux Enamelware Picnic Basket

I just love enamelware, it's one of my very favorite things. 

I used to have an enamelware collection until I had too much of it and needed to downsize. 

I also like to collect vintage metal picnic baskets and until recently I had several of those too. 

Collections are great until you end up with too much stuff. 

Today I'm going to refurbish one of the old rusty metal picnic baskets I had and give it a cute faux enamelware look. 

The first thing I did was to sand off some of the rust and give the picnic basket a coat of primer. 

As you scroll through this post please pay attention to the bold blue links for all the details on these projects! Also check out the READ MORE sections at the end of this post for more projects you'll love! ❤️

The hard part was working around those beautiful wooden handles. 

I decided I could sand the handles when I was finished to remove any paint that ended up on them. 

When the primer dried I painted the picnic basket with Fusion Mineral Paint in Picket Fence white. 

I gave the box 2 coats of white. 

When the white paint dried I used a sample of red paint I had in my workshop.

Enamelware comes in many colors, you can use any color craft paint for this part!

I rubbed a line of red paint around the top of the picnic basket with my finger. 

Next, I used a black Sharpie paint pen to add a little black chippy look on the raised corners and around the red line. 

Think about where real enamelware may have chipped. 

When everything was dry I covered the wooden handles with painter's tape and sprayed the picnic basket with a glossy sealer. 

It is definitely a good knock-off enamelware look and I think it will fool the eye left on a shelf for storage. 

The bottom picnic basket is an original I have that is in great shape! 

They make a great set now! 

What do you think?

I think I'll use them to store napkins and placemats I'm not using. 

READ MORE: ENAMELWARE PROJECTS

READ MORE: FAUX FINISHES

               

I think it was totally worth turning this rusty vintage box into something I could use, the beautiful wooden handles alone were worth the trouble!