Give An Unused Cookie Tin New Life As A Stylish Table Centerpiece With An Easy DIY

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You've seen 'em in the home goods aisles of second-hand stores. Heck, there's a good chance that you even have a few sitting at the top of the Christmas pile in your closet. We're talking about those stunning cookie and popcorn tins that companies send out to the masses as soon as the world's biggest holiday snacking season commences. Unfortunately, once they're empty, they're too pretty to toss, yet the company branding on the tins' exterior makes you reluctant to use them for decorating. However, if you're a forward-thinking crafter, those tins are ideal for making a stylish DIY centerpiece. You just need to cover the branding on the tin.

The tins come in various sizes and shapes, including squares and triangles. For home decorators, this variety makes it easy to adapt the tin to your design ideas when it's time to create the centerpiece. For example, if you're arranging a room with a bold geometric Art Deco style, it's logical to use a square tin instead of the oft-seen cylindrical popcorn container. If you don't already have a tin, keep this in mind as you look for one at a thrift store or on eBay.

To make the cookie tin less advertisement-like, you'll need spray paint, silk flowers and greenery, and a roll of decorative ribbon to match your home's decorating motif. And grab a pair of scissors, your hot glue gun, and some clear tape from your crafting tool chest.

Treat the tin with a coat of paint. That hides the decorative branding that's scrawled on the side of the can. You can use any kind of paint for this, though you may want to consider your decor style when choosing it. For example, if your room features shabby chic decor, something like Rust-Oleum Linen White Chalked Matte Spray Paint would complement it. 

When the paint is dry, cut a ribbon strip long enough to wrap around the tin's body. Position it in the middle of the can and glue it down with the hot glue gun. There's room for experimentation here. For instance, instead of a single ribbon, wrap a Black and White Checkerboard Ribbon from the Cunno Store around the middle of the can. After that, glue a floral-print ribbon above and below the checkered ribbon's borders to create a floral-checker-floral ribbon pattern. This makes the vase look like it came from a high-end home decor brand. It's also a way to add visual interest with a vintage pattern-drenched design. 

Finally, you'll elevate the base of the centerpiece by standing it on legs you've constructed from cupboard knobs. As you have with all the other elements in this piece, choose knobs that complement the tin's decorative style. The knobs are available online and at brick-and-mortar home goods stores. However, if you have some vintage knobs that you found at a second-hand store, they'd work, too.

It's best to let the tin's shape and height dictate the arrangement's design. For example, some of the cookie tins are shallow, so you'll need to trim the stems of the silk blooms. Otherwise, they'll topple over because they're too top-heavy and too tall relative to the tin's height. Other containers are too tall, and flowers may drown in them, even if they boast long stems.

You'll also want to give the flowers some scaffolding to help them stand up. The easiest way to do this is to lay clear plastic tape in a checkerboard pattern across the top of the tin (on its lip) before you put the flowers in. The criss-cross design helps the flowers in the middle stand upright. You'll arrange the flower stems so that a few stand inside each square of tape. You'll basically end up with a few different "sections" of flowers in the arrangement, thanks to the checkerboard pattern of the tape. You won't see the tape's patterns in the centerpiece; that's just what it'll look like underneath. The blossoms hide the criss-crossing tape.

The other option is to snip the stems off the flowers completely and use a floating floral arrangement instead. To do this, you'd fill the tin with water and place the flower heads on top, letting them float. Or you could forgo flowers altogether and light up the cookie tin with Super Z Unscented Floating Mini Candles to create a glowing display for a quiet dinner party.