perplexed. anyone have any ideas?

I am perplexed. I love pretty storage. I love making everything look neat and organized and beautiful. Some of my favorite types of storage are pretty baskets, shabby chic bins, and awesome vintage pieces like old library card holders. Don't these all look so pretty?

all pictures above are from google images

I also love "updating" old pieces that I find at thrift stores. I even have encouraged people to do this on this blog. And for those of you that have seen me on pinterest you know that I love seeing what everyone does. I am also very inspired by all of the different projects that I see happening on different blogs.{Seriously, so many people are SOO talented!} So when I came across these plastic baskets:

picture from www.amazon.com





I was THRILLED because (a) I need storage, (b) they were so cheap ($.10 each- I paid a total of $1.00 for all 10!) and (c) while they were not a pretty white (some are purples, some are blues, and a few are white)  I was confident that I would be able to transform them into something very pretty. I mean people do that all of the time with things right?

Wrong.

Or at least I can't find any ideas. :( I have searched pinterest and blogs and so far am coming up with nothing. Anyone have any ideas or thoughts for a basket-shabby chic-vintage-pretty lovin 'girl on what I could do? Please?