Friday, October 12, 2012

My Tea Cabinet


I am thrilled with how this project turned out and though it took some time, it was worth it. I have a bit of a sad recycle fail story to include. I wanted to keep this project cost effective and really liked the idea of reusing. I shopped my favourite thrift stores for jars and scored 45 matching jars! I was thrilled. They cost 25¢ each. There weren't many lids and most were rusted and in rough shape, but I wasn't too worried because I knew you could buy lids at most stores in canning season. Home with my jars. Washed my jars and they sat waiting for lids. Well, turns out that it costs about the same to buy whole new jars with lids than just the lids. In fact, I soon realized that the jars I bought are GEM jars and need a special lid. $9.00+ a dozen. Ugh! I could get a dozen jars with lids for around $7/doz. This was so frustrating. After several days of research (my David even looked all over the internet) it became apparent that it was best to buy new jars. Being ever so gracious of my love of projects, my David bought me new jars.


Truth be told, these ones fit even better in my cupboard. As you can see on the top shelf, I did need some larger jars to hold some tea that I have a lot of. Including my current favourites, White Vanilla Coconut and Honey Vanilla White Chai (which I sadly discovered is discontinued....WAAAA!)


I found printable labels online for mason jar lids. I was going to copy the idea, designing my own version, but my little Print Shop program didn't quite have the effects I was looking for, so I adapted the free printable labels to suit my needs better. I colour coded the kind of teas and included the brand of tea so that I could easily replace a tea as it ran out.


Doesn't it look beautiful? Oh, and just before I forget, if you want to store tea in clear jars, be sure that they go into a closed cupboard. Tea is best stored in airtight and light free containers. Tins are perfect, but the cost was too high for me to consider. I do have 50+ different kinds of teas.


3 comments:

Donna Dawe said...

Looks just wonderful! You have left me very curious about what you've used the other portions of this cabinet for & where do you keep it? Just looking for a complete visual... loves all around!

Patty-Jean from LittleQuiver said...

Brilliantly brilliant as always Coralee!!! love it. Glad for the reminder that tea should be out of light. It actually looks similar to a, what are they called, medicinal herb kitchen closet thing....there is a term and it has escaped me now. I have a dilemma with both tea storage and dried herbs - that I use for medicinal teas. Right now they are all in their zip locked bags they came in, stacked like a book shelf in my pantry. Not the best. Totally would love to have a wall/open shelf with glass jars displaying the herbs - would be lovely, but then they'd be in the light....p.s. I'm coming down the last week of Nov :)

Anonymous said...

Coralee:

I love your tea cabinet idea. We are looking to do something very similar for my mother-in-law. If you don't mind, where did you find the cabinet itself? This is the perfect size and design for her needs.