From drab to fab {a white wash makeover}

I have slowly become more confident in my decorating choices and therefore I have been trying to be less afraid and just go with it.  This has led to lots of daydreaming about projects around my house.  I lay in bed rearranging furniture in my head, or contemplate paint colors while taking a shower.  I would much rather make mood boards on olioboard then wash the dishes!

One thing I have been thinking about a lot lately are these storage cubes I have in our living room for some of the girls' toys.  I have one on each side of our tv stand.

I love them because they hide the toys.  And I used to love their color.  But now I think they are too dark.  And besides...they are so banged up.

I have just been living with them because I thought there wasn't much I could do besides replace them.  Then yesterday I had a "DUH!" moment...I could paint them.  But it had to be something that wouldn't chip off and if it did it wouldn't be very noticeable. So for whatever reason white washing popped in my head!  I figured it would be soaked up by the wicker and have a subtle brown undertone.  I didn't want stark white.  People...I could not be happier with the results. What do you guys think?  (It looks a lot brighter in the pictures then it actually is)

And it cost me nothing!!  I just used white craft paint that I thinned down with water and applied it with a foam brush.  It took quite a few coats and I had to make sure I got in all the crevices so it wasn't the quickest project but totally worth every second!

I am going to finish the other one tomorrow.  Then I was thinking of putting on some rub on poly that I have.  Do you think it's a good idea?  Do you think it needs poly?  Thanks!!  Now I'm looking for other things in my house to white wash! haha!