I met a man who wanted to get rid of 100+ antique mason jars that had been sitting in his barn for years and years. I brought them home and had a (not) fun time cleaning them all. I was planning on re-selling them, but of course I wanted to keep some for myself. They all had their original zinc lids, which I think is the best part about them. I wanted to create a centerpiece for my dining room, and after browsing Pinterest for some inspiration, I came up with this.

I used the smaller pint sized jars for this project. The ball jar zinc lids have a milk glass insert that I needed to break out first with a hammer. I am sure there is an easier way to cut a hole in the top, but I just used a screw driver and hammer and punctured lots of little holes in a circle until it popped out. Then I gently tapped the sharp metal edges of the hole to the inside of the lid with a hammer so that it is smooth and no one will get cut. I found simple white candles to fit the jar and filled up the bottom 1/3 with brown rice, screwed on the lid and done!

The little wood tray I made with scrap wood. I just used a hand saw and miter box to cut and then wood glue/finishing nails to hold it together. I thought it would be a good idea to distress it by beating it with a chain. I had seen it done on TV before and wanted to try it. Well…I wasn’t thrilled how that made it look but I wasn’t going to re-make the box so I pressed onward. I painted it black and put metal brackets on the corners. The brackets were a shiny silver which did not look right with the zinc mason jar lids, so I used some paint to give it a faux finish by carefully dry brushing various shades of grey on.

It would be so easy to change up the centerpiece by adding pebbles, pinecones, or whatever you want!