Decorating with Baskets

A basket is both beautiful and useful. It can help improve the look and feel of your living space, particularly the cooking and dining areas. The basket is a container, with either covered or uncovered opening, originally constructed from stiff fibres like willow. Today, there are baskets made of countless materials, including newspaper, reed, rattan, bamboo, palm leaves, and wood.

Baskets were traditionally made for utilitarian purposes, not for aesthetic purposes. However, basket weaving or making is now practiced as an art, where basket makers enjoy freedom in choosing colours, materials, sizes, and patterns for their creations.

Baskets, specifically hand-woven ones, lend a country touch to your kitchen as you fill it with produce like flowers, fruits or vegetables bought from the grocery store or grown in your backyard garden. Baskets can accentuate your living room and sleeping quarters as a means of unique storage for throw pillows and blankets. For the bathroom, pick an open tray-basket and fill it with toiletries like soap, lotion, shampoo, etc. A basket with intricate details is easy to come by, and you can immediately use them as decorative items just by placing them on top of counters and tables. You can adorn a plain basket by gluing dried flowers around the edge, ribbons on the handle, and colourful lining in the inside. A garnished basket can then be hung vertically like a wall decor. Do not hung them all in a row, try other arrangements, as well. You can also make a centrepiece out of a basket. Line the inside of the basket with plastic sheet or shallow bowl. Place a wet oasis (green sponge for flower arrangement) and arrange flowers, greens and ribbons on it.