Spice Jars

For a long time, I have wanted to have pretty and matching spice jars.  After being inspired by Emersonmade's picture perfect pantry, I decided to take the leap.  My parents gave me the jars for Mother's Day...from China Fair, of course.  We decided that we should finish this effort up before moving, so without further ado...

We are so happy with our uniform little bottles.  It makes us want to cook more :)  So much better than our mess of a cabinet before...

Before:

After:

If you are interested, here is the process I went through.  First,  we washed all the bottles and worked to get the price tag goop off.

Next, I ordered weatherproof labels from Online Label.   I was worried that if I used regular labels, as soon as Sean and I, the messy cooks that we are, touched the labels with our grimy hands, the ink would run.  I ordered 8.5 x 11 labels so that I could make them whatever shape I wanted and then just cut them myself.

Then, I designed the labels in PowerPoint.  I know, I know, I REALLY need to learn how to use Illustrator.  It is definitely one of my goals for the year.  If you are interested in the labels, I would be happy to share them with you.

I printed and then cut them all out.

Sean came up with this template to help me place the labels in the same spot on the bottle every time.  Stroke of genius by my husband.  I was so proud of him :)

He used Post Its to make this, and it was so handy that the template had the base. 

After all the bottles were labeled, I started transferring all the spices.

I spilled a little. :)

Then, I tried to take a cue from my friend Allie and her mom, who alphabetize their spices.  This will take some self discipline, and probably won't last, but in theory, I LOVE the idea. :)

Doing this project gave me an appreciation of the beauty of spices.  I love that you can see so much of the spices now instead of being covered up by large labels.

After the move, we would like to get some sort of 'stepped' piece to display them...maybe something like this one from Container Store....

Some inspiration for the project...
Apartment Therapy Chicago - Spice Racks and Organizational Systems

Eclectic (Yet Coordinated) Spice Jar Sets