I asked my sister for all her kids’ empty baby food jars. And these DIY spice jars are why: budget-friendly and eco-friendly, this is an easy how-to on making your own custom, retro, apothecary-style spice jars using old, empty baby food jars.
I have always had the kitchen-dream of having an aesthetic spice display. You know: those fancy, uniformly-sized, cylindrical, glass spice jars with the black lids and gold rims? But holy moly, they are expensive! (Especially considering the amount you’d need if you plan on ever using more than three dried spices in your cooking…) My solve for this dilemma was to collect all the empty baby food jars from my sister that I could in order to make my own! Bonus is that upcycling old jars that were headed for the recycling bin makes this DIY both budget-friendly and eco-friendly. Here is what you’ll need:
MATERIALS
- empty, clean glass jars with their lids*
- 220-grit sandpaper
- rust-oleum matte black spray paint (adheres to metal)
- oil-based gold sharpie marker
- rust-oleum clear matte spray top coat
- retro label-maker
*NOTE: This whole DIY project can of course work with any empty jar you can reuse from the grocery store from honeys, nut butters, salsas, preserves, etc. These little baby food jars just happened to be the perfect size for what I personally needed and my sister was just going to be recycling them anyways (so, they were – bonus – completely free for me!)
PROCESS:
- Scuff sand the outer surface of your lids with 220-grit sandpaper and, with a damp cloth, wipe away any dust that forms. Lightly sanding scuffs the glossy finish and gives the paint some texture to better adhere to.
- Spray 2 – 3 light-handed coats of the matte black spray paint, allowing to dry fully in between each coat.
- Once fully cured (I’d wait overnight before this next step) raw a thin rim of gold around the outer edge of the lids with an oil-based, gold Sharpie marker for that extra special detail.
- Seal everything up with two coats of the matte clear coat and allow to dry for at least a full 24 hours before filling up your jars!
- Use your retro label maker to label all your jars with that old school, vintage apothecary look.
After these five easy steps and minimal cost, you’re ready to fill your dried herb and spice jars with whatever you need — and now you’ve got the most vintage aesthetic looking kitchen out of all your friends, guaranteed. And if you’re looking for more ways to fill out your kitchen styling around these super cute spice jars, check out this blog post, here.
