Well, it is kind of ugly. Whatever wicker material it's made out of is unfinished (read: dull) and a light, nondescript, blah color. I got tired of the ugliness and decided to do something about it.
I actually got two of these baskets thinking they would both go under the TV, but the DVD player and VCR made it impossible to use another basket opposite the one in the picture above. The other basket found a home on the bottom shelf of my bookshelf and now holds oversize books and Scout's growing collection of cat toys. I used that one as my guinea pig basket.
Here are my supplies for the ugly basket renovation project:
Counterclockwise from left: gloves, wood stain, piece of old t-shirt, plastic drop cloth, chip brush, newspaper. Also, ugly basket (not pictured).
Basically the idea was to stain the wicker using plain old wood stain. Everything else is for protection of the work area besides the chip brush and t-shirt, which are used to apply the stain. Wood stain is so easy to use and really makes a remarkable difference in most cases (see this post for example). The key is just to have an unfinished surface to work with. If my baskets hadn't been inexpensive unfinished wicker, the stain would not have had much effect. As it is, though, here's the photographic proof of the Power of the Stain:
Before.
During (1st coat).
After 2 coats (finished basket on the left; yet-to-be-done basket on the right)
How 'bout DEM apples.
