I ran across a treasure recently. cc's family has land in the country with barns filled to the brim with junk. It seems as if her grandfather was a "collector." As her father was cleaning out the barn one day, he unearthed 15 or more locker baskets. He stacked them in the toss pile and I happened to snag a few that were in the best condition.
He had no idea how much these baskets are worth. While I was out antique browsing I found two locker baskets on sale for around $30 each! I took a quick picture because I knew he wouldn't believe me.
These baskets come in so handy, but they needed cleaning up first. I am fortunate to have a large sandblaster at work, so a co-worker of mine sandblasted all of them to get the rust off. Once they were raw I was able cover the name plate and spray paint them.
I painted basket 507 in white for my bathroom. I have a vintage dentist cabinet painted a turquoise green that holds my towels and I'm using basket 507 to hold wash cloths.
I painted basket 504 in bright blue to place in this room and hold all my favorite publications.
My favorite detail about the baskets are the number plates. I wonder if the lockers came from a school or an employee break room. They were made by Kasper Wire Works in Shiner, Texas (also home of a really good beer) so they didn't travel far.
I have a few more that will more than likely end up in my studio for storage of paints and other products, but I haven't decided on a paint color yet. What would you do with them?
what an amazing find. I always imagine I'm going to find something like these and then make them over and re-purposes them.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to see they found a new home with you!
They have so many good uses! Thanks for the comment.
DeleteI love them too but think they are pricey when I do find them. I love the colors that you painted them!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I was excited to find them.
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