Locker Baskets

A few weeks ago a got a bee in my bonnet that I needed to have a system to handle all of the kids’ stuff that ends up on the first floor but belongs on the second floor.

I had something like this in mind

but the ones I found were either too small, too expensive, or both. So, when I came across these locker baskets at Deals for $5 each, I grabbed ‘em.

What, you don’t like the orange? Well, maybe for a playroom or something, but these will be kept in the living room at the foot of the stairs.

Enter your friend and mine: spray paint! First, I primed. It was kind of tedious to get all of the surfaces of the wire grid.

I did two to three coats of Rustoleum automobile primer. I actually didn’t notice it was auto when I bought it, but it probably wasn’t a bad idea for metal. I highly recommend that little trigger thing that snaps on the to paint.

After some trial and error trying to replicate the look of galvanized metal, I finally just ended up with smoke gray Krylon, which matches these wall bins I have in the back hall. After a couple coats of that, I wanted to label one for each child. I decided to go for the popular numbered look.

I used contact paper in a method similar to the one I used for the numbers on my front door, but this time I used the negative space as a stencil. I used several coats of white acrylic, but I’m not sure that was the right choice. When I peeled of the stencil, the acrylic had a rubbery quality and some of it wanted to peel off too. We’ll see how long it lasts.

Here is the finished product under the table at the bottom of the stairs. During the day, I will put each child’s things in the corresponding basket and it will be their job to take it upstairs, put away the stuff, and bring the basket back down. That's the plan, anyway.

In the interest of full disclosure, I need to show you this.

You can see that there was some bleeding under the stencil. I thought I adhered it really well around the cutouts, but apparently it wasn’t good enough. However, I decided that it was Good Enough For Me. You can only see it up close; overall, I really like how they turned out.

Hmm, if you think about it, they do look a leetle bit like something that would be issued to an inmate. I wonder if the chain gang kids will notice.