Easy Outdoor Resin Wicker Basket Makeover

This resin wicker basket had seen better days and no longer suited my style. Time for a budget-friendly makeover! Check out how I painted this resin wicker basket with cheap acrylic craft paint and repaired the handles to give it a whole new look! I hope this inspires you to see how you can reuse and makeover your own wicker items.

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Getting the multi-tonal look of this basket required a bit of experimentation. Here’s the step-by-step process I used to get this look. Baskets like these can be very expensive! This one was originally around $30 from HomeSense, but you could totally try this project with one from the thrift store.

This is a resin wicker basket that is suitable for outdoor use.

Here’s how my basket looked before…

Step-by-step process of this basket makeover

Step 1- clean basket & remove broken handle pieces

Clean the basket to remove any build-up of dirt and grime. This will help the paint adhere better. For this one, I simply ran it under our tub spout. Using an outdoor garden hose to hose it down would work well too. When I painted my tall square planters, I used this outdoor garden sprayer to hose them off (try this one, this one, or this one for similar available options). Let it fully dry before starting to paint.

I also removed the broken piece of resin weave from the handle on my basket. We originally tried gluing it back on, but it didn’t hold. After closer inspection, I discovered that the ends of the resin piece were not tied on or glued, they were just pushed down into the weave. All I had to do was unwind them and pull them out!

A few helpful tips for painting

You can use a dry-brushing technique in some areas to help with getting some variation in tones (sweep your brush over the wicker with your brush being almost dry- this just adds a light dusting of paint).
I find it helpful to use an old brush where the bristles are a bit sparse. This helps get a more rustic texture with the paint.
Be careful not to apply the paint too thick in any areas; you don’t want any thick blobs of paint to get caught in the weave of the wicker.
The Craft Smart paint and the FolkArt paint (the specific colours I used are described in the tutorial below) both state on the bottle that they can be used on plastic and resin. For more options in multi-purpose paint that can be used for plastic and outdoors, try this one.

Step 2- base coat of paint

I did two light, thin coats of paint in the colour “Light Taupe” by Craft Smart (or this Warm Buff colour is similar), allowing each coat to dry. It’s ok to apply the paint lighter in some areas than in others- you don’t want the paint to get too gloppy by trying to add too much at once.

It’s also ok to have some variation in the tone and some of the original colour peaking through. Real wicker has different tones throughout the weave, so we want to mimic this.

Here’s how it looked after the base coat of paint:

After the first two coats of paint (base coats)

Step 3- add some colour variation

After that, I decided it would be nice to add some additional colour tones to this basket and test out painting horizontal “stripes”, giving the look of natural wicker that was woven around with natural variation. A lot of the baskets I see that I love have this multi-tonal look to them.

When looking at inspirational baskets for this DIY, here were some examples of ones I found. They have a wide variety of brown, beige, and grey-ish tones woven throughout them, so I decided to try to achieve a similar look! (Links included in the image caption if you’d like to shop any of these.):

basket 1 link, basket 2 link, basket 3 link, basket 4 link, basket 5 link

To start adding in more variation, I painted horizontal stripes in a lighter colour all around the basket. I used the colour Light Taupe, with some white added to make it a lighter tone. I also added a touch of Golden Brown to give the colour a bit more warmth. This Buff Beige colour would give a similar look.

After painting some lighter-toned stripes

I then added some stripes in a slightly warmer tone to give it more variation. I added more Golden Brown to my Light Taupe + White paint mixture.

Here’s how it looked after those steps (you’ll also notice I repaired the handles… more details on that in the next step):

Step 4- add new handles with hemp twine

After painting the lighter stripes in step 3, I thought I might be finished painting and decided to repair the handles (but I ended up painting more after this). I used some thick hemp twine to wrap around the metal handles.

To get a neat, finished end at the bottom of each handle, I wrapped the twine around the start of each handle in a diagonal cross pattern, and tied a knot on the interior side of the basket to hold the end in place. Like this:

Attaching the hemp twine to fix the handles

Then I simply wrapped the thick hemp twine tightly around the handles. This was very sturdy and didn’t even need to be glued! I just tied a firm knot on each end and it held in place perfectly.

The repaired handles with diagonal cross detail

Step 5- add some more depth with darker tones

After that, I thought the colours of the basket looked a little “flat” compared to some of the inspirational images I looked at. It was needing a bit more contrast with some of the tones… but not in a way that looked too stripe-y. They needed to blend together seamlessly…

So then I decided to paint some stripes in a darker tone that would add more contrast. I mixed my own colour for this by adding a bit of black to the Light Taupe colour, and then adding in some Golden Brown to warm up the colour a bit so it wasn’t too grey/blueish.

Here’s how it looked after adding the darker stripes:

Step 6- add some more lighter stripes

Lastly, I wanted to tone down the darker “stripes” a bit and make them blend in more seamlessly. I simply took some of the previous colours (Light Taupe and Golden Brown) and added more horizontal stripes overlapping the edges of the dark stripes to make them thinner, and have the colours blend together. You don’t want it to look like actual stripes with defined edges.

I also wanted to tone down some of the orange-y tones and make them more beige/natural. So I added a bit of yellow paint with a touch of white to the Light Taupe.

After adding more lighter stripes and blending the darker ones in

It was still looking a bit too “stripe-y”, so then I added a light dusting of Light Taupe paint over top of some of the darker stripes until it looked just right.

Here’s how it looked after all of that:

It turned out great! I am so glad I gave this basket another chance. It was completely free to do too since I already had all of the supplies on hand.

Here’s a quick summary of the steps I did to paint this basket:

Your steps may look a little different if you have more colours available to use!

2 base coats in the colour Light Taupe
Horizontal “stripes” in a lighter tone by mixing Light Taupe + a bit of white + a bit of Golden Brown
Added some warmer-toned stripes by adding more Golden Brown to the Light Taupe + white paint mixture
Added some darker stripes by combining black + Light Taupe + Golden Brown
Painted over some of the dark stripes very lightly with Light Taupe & Golden Brown to tone them down and blend them in
Added some lighter beige tones by mixing a bit of yellow + white to the Light Taupe

Check out the FAQ section below to learn more about this project!

Frequently Asked Questions

The paint seemed to scratch easily after the first day of painting, so that’s something to be mindful of. I recommend placing your painted resin planters in a sheltered location if possible, at least until the paint has had a few days to fully cure, and be cautious with them when moving them around or planting inside of them. After a few days, the paint became much more durable and didn’t scratch as easily. For extra durability, you could use a primer or a sealant. I also think it will be really easy to do touch-ups if needed.

Yes! The painted finish is water-resistant. It has already made it through heavy rain and wind without any damage. However, the paint did seem to scratch easily for at least the first day, so I’m unsure how it will perform if they get hit with a bad hail storm. I will update this post when more time has passed! So far, it’s holding up great!

Yes, you can, however make sure that it states on the bottle that it is suitable for plastic (and ideally for outdoors too). This will ensure that the paint adheres to it. You can even buy acrylic paint that is specifically made for outdoor use, however, I found that there were limited colour options available. I would recommend checking if there is an “outdoor paint” colour option that would work for your project!

I wouldn’t recommend this method for large pieces of wicker furniture where they will get a lot of use (being sat on). It would also be very time-consuming to paint a large piece with a little craft brush instead of spray painting. However, I do think this method would work for small items like a side table. Keep in mind that the paint may scratch more easily than you would want, so this method is best for items that won’t be touched frequently.

Yes, you can totally use this painting technique on real, natural wicker too! However, real wicker can be prone to mold or rot when exposed to too much moisture, so it won’t last as long if used outdoors. Real wicker is best suited for sheltered areas or for indoors.

I hope this has you feeling inspired to see how you can makeover a resin wicker or real wicker item! Save this post to Pinterest!