Mari Makes: Projects - Wire Storage Baskets

And we're back! I apologize for the very long hiatus since my last post, but with moving into a new place and helping to renovate it in the process, I just haven't had time to show to you guys everything I've been up to! We have some new storage challenges at our new place, namely having no linen closet and only a bookcase for towels etc., so I went to work to come up with a solution.

I've been seeing fabric lined wire baskets everywhere these days. I love the look of them, but many of the options I've seen are just too expensive for my blood! Particularly in the sizes I needed for our bookcase.We are using an Ikea Expedit bookcase for the hall outside the bathroom to store all of our towels and linens. I found this tutorial over at Attempting Aloha for creating custom sized wire storage baskets!

I made a few changes, namely getting a heavier gauge hardware cloth (wire mesh, I found mine the outdoor garden section of Lowes for about $10) to withstand heavy linens and towels. I used a $15 9x12" canvas painter's dropcloth from Harbor Freight for the liners (I made 8 baskets and liners and had more than enough fabric left over for a few other projects.)

Materials

Hardware cloth (found at Lowes in garden section) $10

Painter's dropcloth $15 (Or any fabric you want to use for liners. A sturdy fabric I think is best for the heavy gauge wire, as cut ends may poke through if you're not careful.)

Wire cutters, and pliers

Work Gloves (it can be difficult to work with these on, but the alternative is poking and scraping your hands up!)

My pattern shown above is the first one I tried, I later switched to an L shape to get the most out of my materials.

After eyeballing the width of the cubicles to the size of the mesh, I snipped the mesh into an L shape (2 square widths wide on end, then 1 width wide and 4 widths long) that, when folded together would create a box the size of the cubicles in my bookshelf.Using the L shape pattern I was able to get about 4 boxes (slightly varying in measurements cause I messed up on a few, but close enough ), per roll of Hardware Cloth.

I used the wire that came wrapped around the roll of mesh to snugly lace up the open sides, using pliers help wrap the wire tightly. Be careful, when the edges are snipped they can be very sharp! I used the pliers to roll the edges and dull the points on each cut bit. You can also sand then down.

For the liners, I cut a square for the bottoms, and one wide piece that fit inside the basket and sewed them together. I first sewed the big tube seam, then sewing it to the square bottom. I tucked all the raw edges under and sewed them down again after each step to create a nice finished seam. This version of the baskets explains it a little better!