Spring is the time of year when some of my most favorite flowers are in full bloom. Lilacs, ranunculus, peonies… all these flower varieties make me smile just thinking of them. While planning my Easter table this year, I knew I wanted spring blooms to be the focal point. And putting them in a Easter basket just seemed logical. There is nothing I would want more than a basket full of flowers from the Easter bunny. Okay, maybe a winning lottery ticket would beat flowers, but realistically I’m going with flowers. Who is with me?
My first step was finding a good, affordable basket. The affordable part is key because baskets can be pretty pricey. I was on a mission to find a classic shaped Easter basket – round, woven and with a large handle. Finding one that wasn’t plastic or wasn’t $15, $25, $35… proved impossible. Needless to say, I was pretty stoked when I found Easter baskets in Oriental Trading’s Easter Collection. They were the perfect size, shape and material, plus so affordable. You get 12 baskets for a fraction of the price of what one basket can cost. However, they were in bright spring colors. Eek. Not very chic. I wanted white baskets. Good thing, spray paint can fix anything. So I ordered them anyways and my DIY began.
To make your baskets white
Set up a “spray booth” by using a large box. This is important because spray paint can get everywhere. I used the box the baskets came in.
Decide if you want to spray the whole basket or if you want to keep an accent color. I ended up leaving the insides of my baskets their original bright color; therefore, I sprayed ONLY the outside of the baskets, keeping the handles and inside of the baskets the original color (although one I did spray the whole thing). Then once dry, I used white acrylic paint to paint the outside of each handle so that only the insides of the basket were the fun accent color. The spray didn’t really go into the inside of the baskets but if you are scared of the over spray, cover the parts of the basket you don’t want painted first and then spray.
Arranging flowers in your basket
Full disclosure, I am not a florist, but I think the steps I did were florist worthy. Haha. But seriously, this is a very doable arrangement and this is exactly what I did. A florist may tell you there are easier ways. By all means, follow their direction, but this is what I did and it was very easy.
You will need to use floral oasis for this arrangement. First, line the basket with a plastic bag and place a Tupperware bowl inside. Put a piece of soaked floral oasis in the Tupperware bowl. This made it easy to arrange the flowers.
Now you’re ready for flowers. I like to keep it simple so I picked white lilacs and a variety of ranunculus. Usually you’ll want to look for three elements:
- Your greenery
- Your main flowers
- And your smaller/cheaper filler flowers or filler greenery.
In this case I picked lilacs to act as both my “greenery” and “filler flower.” But as I’ll explain, that’s not always the case. I just really wanted a lot of white and no green for this.
Start with your base layer. Usually this would be your greenery. As I stated earlier, I opted to not use greenery and have the lilacs act like greenery. Lilacs are on sturdy branches that aren’t typical of your normal flowers so this seemed like a logical flower swap for greenery. However, if you can’t find white lilacs, substitute a pretty greenery and start with that and then add flowers.
I layered the lilacs so they filled the basket, making sure I had blooms covering the edges of the basket. You don’t want people seeing inside the basket and your Tupperware. A trick is you’ll most likely cut the branches/stems shorter than you think.
Add your main flowers. Once I was happy with the layer of lilacs, I added in my main flowers, the ranunculus. I just nestled them so they peaked out through the lilacs.
Add your filler. Once I was done with the ranunculus I was ready for the “filler.” This is where you look for any holes and put in smaller (usually cheaper) filler blooms. So I looked for any holes and added more of the white lilacs.
I love the combination of only lilacs and ranunculus because it looks so whimsical and just perfectly spring to me. It’s also so bright and happy. And notice how you still can catch a glimpse of the original yellow basket on the inside of the handle—such a lovely detail.
Don’t feel confident? Go to your florist. If you just feel like this is too complicated—just take your basket to your local florist. Show them a picture of my basket and I’m sure your florist will create something even better!
The arrangement made for the perfect focal point on my Easter tablescape. To see more details of how I set my Easter table, see my post 4 Tips for Setting Your Easter Table, it includes the how-to tutorial for the adorable DIY Easter Basket Animals.
