How To Decorate With Vintage Baskets in Modern Farmhouse

Do you love thrifting for vintage baskets? If so, you may be looking for ideas to decorate with baskets in your home. Here are some vintage basket decor ideas you can start using right away.

Baskets are a great way to add texture to a neutral decor style, and there are so many ways to use them throughout your home. If you are like me and can’t leave a great basket behind, then these tips will help you display your unique finds around your home for stylish decorating ideas.

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What Were Vintage Baskets Used For?

Basket weaving is an age-old craft developed for practical needs and survival. They were woven for harvesting, carrying food, and storing supplies.

Basket weaving was also for building traps for animals and fish. Woven mats for sleeping were also made with the same techniques as baskets.

Today, baskets are still used for practical needs as well as for decorating our homes.

Thrifting with the Gals

Today’s post is part of our monthly series, Thrifting with the Gals.

If you are new to our series, we are friends who share a love for vintage and thrifted decorating.

We all live in different parts of the country, but we come together once a month to share thrift store shopping ideas and tips on decorating with your treasures.

Here are the Gals:

• Ann from Dabbling and Decorating finds her treasures as she travels between Vermont and Maine. She decorates both homes with so many vintage treasures.
• Robyn from Robyn’s French Nest loves to travel and bring her vintage treasure to her lovely Florida Home.
• Lora from Lora Bloomquist Create and Ponder is joining us as a permanent addition to Thrifting with the Gals. We are so happy to have another vintage lover among us.
• I am from North Carolina, and I love filling my farmhouse and beach cottage with thrift store finds. I focus on budget-friendly decorating and DIY projects.
• This month, our guest host is the talented Cindy at County Road 407. Cindy is the host of the monthly Pinterest Challenge and bi-monthly Lifestyle of Love series.

We are excited to welcome Wendy from WM Home Designs this month. Wendy is a talented decorator, gardener, and DIY enthusiast from California.

What Are Some Practical Basket Decor Ideas?

New and Vintage Baskets can be used for many different purposes. Here are some basket decor ideas that will have you searching thrift stores for old baskets.

Storage

What can you store in baskets? Just about anything.

Picnic Baskets and other baskets with lids are great for out-of-season decor storage.

Open baskets work well for storing any of the following.

• Blankets
• Throw Pillows
• Magazines
• Books
• Electronic Equipment
• Toys
• Pet Toys
• Utensils
• Cutlery
• Towels
• Linens
• Dishes

Use in a pantry to organize your spices, snacks, dishes, baking supplies, trash bags, paper products, etc.

Above Cabinets

Whether in the kitchen, bathroom, or bedroom, adding vintage baskets to the tops of cabinets is a great way to add texture and visual interest to your spaces. However, they can also provide out-of-sight storage for any of the above items.

Empty baskets and faux greenery are added above the kitchen cabinets on How to Decorate Above Kitchen Cabinets.

Fresh flowers are added to this vintage basket above the dining room hutch.

In addition, dried flowers in a vintage basket add interest above the step-back hutch in the bedroom. The vintage frame was featured in last month’s Thrifting with the Gals, 19 Ways To Up-cycle Vintage Picture Frames.

Baskets on Fireplace Mantel

A thrifted basket vase adds texture to the fireplace mantel for Spring. To fill it with fresh azalea blooms, add a tall vase or container to the inside of the basket. Fill the basket container with water and arrange your blooms. For more details, check out 7 Spring Mantel Decorating Ideas.

Collecting Vintage Baskets

Vintage baskets are fun to collect, and you can get some really good deals.

Most of my favorite vintage baskets show some signs of use. They are not perfectly shaped and may lean a little sideways.

Those are usually the best deals. However, many would be very expensive in an antique shop.

I also like to look for handwoven baskets. They may not be vintage, but the workmanship and quality are there.

The tops of cabinets are a great place to display baskets and store out-of-season decor. Even thrift store plate baskets add texture and look lovely displayed on the wall.

How To Decorate with Baskets

I thought I’d share some of my thrifted baskets with you and how I’ve used them to decorate my modern farmhouse.

I store most of my baskets in the greenhouse/she shed while not decorating with them inside the farmhouse.

We built this DIY ladder specifically to hang the basket collection from. When that one was filled, I added a smaller tobacco stick ladder to the other end of the greenhouse.

Baskets for Arranging Fresh Flowers & Greenery

One of my favorite ways to decorate with baskets is with flower arrangements.

It’s easy to add fresh flowers and greenery to woven baskets.

You can use vases, recycled tin cans, or plastic containers filled with water inside your basket to keep your blooms hydrated.

This Queen Annes lace wild flowers and fern arrangement looks great in a hanging wall basket.

Harvest Baskets

There is just something about a basket filled with fresh-cut flowers or vegetables that brightens my day.

Faux Flower Basket Arrangements

Although I love using fresh flowers when available, I find that artificial flowers arranged in vintage baskets are perfect for decorating in a modern farmhouse.

Faux flower choices are so realistic that I sometimes have to touch them to be sure they are real or not.

A couple of my recent thrift store finds are getting a lot of attention lately. You may remember them on 10 Ideas for Ideal Porch Sitting.

A thrifting in Wilmington adventure led me to this handwoven basket vase. I’ve used it several times in the greenhouse with faux flowers and, most recently, on my kitchen island for the Country Chic Spring home tour.

You will find an oversized handmade basket filled with a fern, a vintage watering can, and a flag on the DIY Apothecary cabinet for the 4th of July in the greenhouse.

As you can see, I love using baskets both inside the house and in the greenhouse. Can you count how many baskets are in the 4th of July photo?

For more basket decor ideas, scattering empty vintage baskets around your space adds charm to your decor.

This harvest basket was a treasured find from the Carolina Picker’s Festival last year. It’s perfect for seasonal stems.

More Basket Decor Ideas – Picnic Baskets

I love finding old picnic baskets to decorate with. They are also great for storage while not being used for a picnic or filled with flowers.

You can use your collected picnic baskets by planning a real picnic. Check out this Summer Picnic Idea and this Patriotic Picnic Idea

More Thrifting with the Gals

Up next is Wendy from WM Design House, and I know you will love her ideas for DIY Moss frames.

Wendy’s DIY Moss Frame Art Gallery Wall / Ann’s Decorating with Dress Forms

Robyn’s How To Decorate with Yard Sale Finds / Kristin’s Wish List for Flea Market Spring Shopping

Pin It To Remember It

Did you find some great ideas you’d like to save for future reference? Hover over the images you’d like to save and pin to your favorite Pinterest Boards when you see the PIN button.