Pondered Primed Perfected: Anthropologie

Sometimes I see something and want it so bad...no matter how frivolous or unnecessary the item is. Do you ever feel that way?

Maybe it's nostalgia...bringing back memories of when I was young. I can recall many warm summer days, trips to local farms and eating our fill of sweet summer berries before taking our bounty home for making jams and crisps with the family. My mom was always so good about those things! Yeah, those were the days...

ANTHROPOLOGIE has some very eclectic, colorful home decor and accessories. I've seen some really cute things. I like their funky colors and unique qualities. How I would love to get my hands on some of their offerings. Especially a darling ceramic fruit basket that looks just like the little green cardboard pint you might find holding berries at your local Fruit Stand or Farmers' Market.

See this little cardboard basket?

Anthropologies' Farmers Market baskets are made from stoneware cast from real fruit containers and come in several colors. Check out the link below if you are interested:
http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/product/home-kitchen-gadgets/20744306.jsp

But personally, I wasn't ready to send them my money. I decided to see what I could do with what I had. So I grabbed my little cardboard basket and some spray enamel paint in white and gave it several good coats on all sides. I made sure to really get it into the cutout areas and edges too. Even the bottom:

It took several coats to give it good coverage over all of the green cardboard. After it was dry I picked it up and realized it still felt and looked more like cardboard than ceramic. So I took some of my Gesso, which I use to prepare canvases for painting, and gave the basket another good thick coating using a paint brush. When it finally dried the basket was substantially more stiff and solid than before. My final step was to give it two generous coats of a spray polyurethane to gloss it up and seal it.

I'm sure it could not be considered "food safe". It's more for staging, if you know what I mean. If I do use it to hold fruit I will probably line it with a coffee filter to be safe. I don't mind. It was easy and fun and it turned out darling...just like ANTHROPOLOGIE'S! It will look great sitting in my open cabinets in the kitchen or out on the table holding "whatnots".