Even though most of our friends and family live right here in Dallas, from time to time we get a special treat and I get to play hostess when someone drops by to stay with us for the weekend.

My friend Abby is our most recent house guest – she was in town to attend our friend Jen’s engagement party (which you saw here).  Prying Abby out of Austin for the weekend is no easy feat, so I wanted to make sure that she felt right at home while staying at our house.

When you’re staying at someone’s house, it can get really old always having to ask them where everything is – so when Abby came to stay, I decided to cut out the middleman (me) and just give her the goods.  That way she would have everything that she needed right at her fingertips!

It turns out that I already had everything I needed on hand, so this project cost me zero dollars.  Here’s the little goodie basket that I whipped up in no time for Abby’s bathroom:

I started out with this cute wire basket that I snagged at Home Goods awhile back for only $7.99.  I was instantly smitten when I saw it, and had to have it.  Months later, inspiration struck and I knew it would be perfect for a guest goodie basket . . . with just a few little changes, of course!

While I loved the deep wood handles, the problem with this little guy is that he was an off-white color – it didn’t really have the spa-like vibe that I was going for in the jack ‘n jill bath.  No worries, it was nothing a little spray paint couldn’t fix!  The first step was to mask off the handles with painter’s tape:

Then I busted out my trusty silver spray paint, made especially for metal like this wire basket:

Just a few quick sprays with the paint (check out those lovely plastic gloves) and the basket was ready to bask in the sun and dry.  Don’t ask me why we still have that old rusted thing that’s supposed to corral gardening hoses – but I’m glad we do, ’cause it was the perfect place to hang the basket to dry.

You may have noticed that I always spray paint outside on the grass – that’s because of all those lovely fumes.  If I’m painting something flat on the grass, like a mail slot, then I’ll usually put something under it to protect the grass.  But in cases like this where I can just hold the to-be-spray-painted-item in the air, I don’t bother protecting the grass – so far, none of the little paint particles have marked the grass and even if they did we could just mow them away.  However, I do always make sure that I’m far away from the house or the fence – I don’t think a big blotch of spray paint would do much to help the exterior of our house!

The last step was to add a few goodies to the basket – things like lavender shampoo and conditioner, soap, toilet paper and washcloths are sure to make any guest happy.

So there you have it!  Using just items that I had on hand, I was able to whip up this pretty little basket in about an hour.  Not only was Abby a happy camper, but now I can just replenish it for each new guest – how easy is that?

Ready to make your own welcome basket?  What little things do you do for your guests to make them feel at home?

This post is shared with A Soft Place to Land.