I completed a fun little project and wanted to share how easy it was to do. My mom had this adorable basket that she wasn’t using anymore so she gave it to me. I loved it, but thought a different color leather strap would look cute, so I painted it. Below is a picture of what the basket looked like before. I really love how the brown leather looked too, but I wanted to try something different as well.
Before:
I painted that center strap black to give in more of a cottage-y look and I really like how it turned out. It was super easy to complete and minimal supplies were needed. Everything I used is listed below along with the steps that I took to complete the project.
What I used:
Black Acrylic Paint
I used a simple black acrylic craft paint to achieve this look. A small bottle is only about $2-3 in the store and I already had some lying around the house.
Foam Brush
I used a foam brush first to get a majority of the paint on the leather. The foam brush was easy to use and made the application go on pretty good.
Small Detail Brush
Then I used the small detail brush to get into the smaller areas where I didn’t want paint to get on the basket. I also applied the second coat of paint with the detail brush.
Toothpick
Now you may be wondering what the toothpick was for. A little bit of paint got on the metal areas on the leather, so I just used a toothpick to scrape it right off. Super easy and didn’t take much time! That was way easier than individually taping those metal pieces one by one.
Wax/Wax Cloth
Since the acrylic paint that I had was glossy, I used a finishing wax to buff it and give the leather more of a matte finish. It worked great and will also protect the leather as well. I used a wax cloth to apply and it worked great. It was hard to capture in the photo, but in the second picture below, you can kind of see how the top is more matte with the wax and the bottom is glossy.
Wax 
Top: With Wax
Bottom: Without Wax
After:
Black Leather Straps 
Black Leather Straps
This was such a simple project and since I already had all of the materials, it really didn’t cost me anything extra. Updates don’t have to be hard to accomplish or even expensive. Hopefully this post shared that!
As always, you can follow my Instagram @prettyinplaids for more inspiration. Thanks for stopping by!
