In cleaning out my closets for spring and sorting through long-forgotten items, I have been thinking about pretty, functional ways to organize items. Now, this side of organizing, all I seem to notice are baskets. They are charming and unusual and some of them have stories and others are purely functional — and you can find a basket in any size, at any budget, for any function.
As I’ve been mulling over how to make spaces more beautiful — where to store the dog toys, how to pile the blankets neatly somewhere at the end of the evening, or where to store books and magazines I want to keep — baskets keep popping up. Now that they’re on my mind, I see them everywhere in design, from the most formal spaces to the relaxed, country-style homes where you’d expect to see a cluster of them for picking fruit or flowers.
It’s rare to find an item so functional, so useful and so universally appealing and interesting, but here they are.
Today’s theme is baskets (but you knew that already), how they can be as much a design feature as a functional storage item, where to find them and where to place them, plus one way to use a basket out of the home — and look great doing it. Thanks for reading.
Bunny Mellon’s basket house
A collection gone rogue (and right)
Bunny Mellon’s basket house — yes, basket house — is the stuff of design legends. Baskets hang from the ceiling, line the walls and floors. In other spaces, too, she made ample use of baskets. Even the famous trompe l’oeil potting shed had baskets painted into the scenes that lined the walls.
What I find so interesting about her style of decorating was the balance of formality with very relaxed, functional elements. This is the woman who decorated the Kennedy-era White House and was asked by then-President John F. Kennedy to redo the rose garden. Bunny was a prolific gardener in addition to interior designer. Her basket house, located on Oak Spring Farm in Virginia, looks like a space in between a garden shed and an elegant country living room.
I love how messy it is, gloriously untidy. It’s a clever idea to hang baskets from the ceiling to add visual interest that could be, if you wanted, swapped in and out as you find a need for a basket. This would be especially cute in a laundry or utility room, a pantry or even a hallway.
Above, on the far right, is Mellon in the basket house. See the variation on the theme: on her feet are espadrilles with woven, basket-like soles.
Trompe l’oeil — a style of painting that roughly translates to “fools the eye” — on the walls of the potting shed at Mellon’s farm features numerous baskets, too. You can tell that she loved them.
If anything, this is a great case for starting a collection.
WHERE THE WOVEN THINGS ARE
Baskets, braids, caning, wicker and rattan
Wedgwood creamware basket with woven, braided details.
Soane Britain’s “Webbing” fabric in Azure.
Cabinetry painted in the prettiest earthy green and baskets, among other things, stacked on the shelves (source unknown).
A rattan shell dish by Sharland England. (I bought one for my grandmother for Christmas and can confirm they look very pretty out on display.)
Camille Pissaro’s “Côte des Grouettes, near Pontoise” from The Met Museum collection.
Tory Burch basketweave silk scarf, $98.
A TISKET, A TASKET
3 good baskets for 3 different uses
To carry, to display and to store: Try this French market basket for everyday shopping, go for a hanging basket to adorn your front door or do like a designer and slide this hefty basket beneath a table for extra storage.
DYNAMIC DUO: LEGGY TABLE & A BASKET
Fill the empty space and maximize your storage
Baskets make appearances in even the most formal of spaces, often as a decorative element tucked to the side or tucked beneath a table. I like how a basket of any size fills what can be an odd little gap beneath a table and the floor.
To be fair, I have no idea what would fit in this basket (maybe dog toys for a small pup) but I like how it’s tucked beneath the antique table next to the pretty and formal settee.
Doesn’t this room make you feel peaceful? The design is so harmonious with all the similar colors and how they play off of each other. This tall basket, which is (or greatly resembles one) from Pottery Barn, has made appearances in many designers spaces. It’s the flat bottom of the basket that I think makes it ideal for storing books or magazines or perhaps even heavy blankets. It’s just a little more sturdy.
Cast off to the side of a desk, you could use a cute basket for papers or pencil shavings.
You can barely see the basket peeking out from underneath the table in the background of the photo, but I like it here too. Lower and wider, this one might be used to store firewood but if you don’t have a wood-burning fireplace, dog toys or blankets or books will do.
GOOD CHOICE
Be like Jane Birkin, carry a basket as a purse
Yes, the most expensive handbag in the world bears her name, but Jane Birkin was equally as known for her love of one particular, simple basket. She’s seen at all manner of events — formal and informal — carrying a little basket with a lid as her handbag. It’s simple. It’s unpretentious. It’s perfect.
José bought me a french basket of comical size for Christmas the first year we were married and I carried it proudly as a handbag, though I probably could’ve fit inside it if I tried. It was fun to carry around. I think I’ll do it again this summer.
All the best,
Mary Grace