How I DIY’d Canning Jars Into An Art Installation (And Would I Do It Again?)

I’m indulging in some nostalgia lately – looking back at 10+ years ago projects with fun emotions (“oh wow”, “I did what?” and even “oh that’s fun”). Maybe in 10 years I’ll look back at the Craft Barn or the squiggle bulletin board with the same surprise and nostalgia. This project I TOTALLY forgot about and when I slacked my team after stumbling upon it on the internet my team was like “what exactly are we looking at?” Exactly. Let me show you.

My client (fun fact, it’s producer Rachna Fruchbom who produced Shrinking, Parks and Rec, Fresh Off The Boat, and And Just Like That) already had these vintage pieces (she is rad, by the way – Orlando and I LOVED working with her and her fam). The piece in question was a huge store display shelving unit which seems great in theory, but what can someone actually put in it in their real home that makes sense? And in a playroom, no less?? Books/cute toys in the bottom cubbies, sure. But the rest of the cubbies were too small and chopped up to be functional. It’s not like you separate your lego colors, or have so many nice looking kids collectables. It’s a cool piece, but actually created a big creative problem that Orlando and I needed to solve (mostly to shoot the room, which was so cute). Rachna gave us free reign as long as we didn’t blow the budget, so we got creative.

Canning Jars FTW???

You may know that my love/nostalgia for canning jars is greater than most. Odd Even. Growing up mormon we canned everything we could, including our annual tuna canning session from the Oregon coast (which was as stinky as it sounds, producing year-round delicious fresh tuna that all my college roommates would fight over). All my vases at our wedding were vintage/antique canning jars I collected throughout our engagement (many I still have). I would say this odd love has depleted, but it hasn’t. I drink daily out of huge canning jars as if it’s a normal glass.

Why Mason Jars?

If I remember correctly, finding anything that made sense to fill the cubbies was impossible. Jars of art supplies would cost so much more (and be unnecessary), wrapping boxes in colorful paper was maybe another idea but could also look soooo janky. Colorful kids blocks also could have worked for a shoot, but would also be more expensive than you’d think and look messy when messed up (and hard to maintain). If you can come up with an idea that makes sense please let me know. We didn’t want it to be bitsy, messy, random, or cost too much. So I guess that landed us on painting mason jars…

We Measured And Math’ed…

Assuming that I had the idea (zero recollection but that is my hand writing), Orlando and I mathed it all out by measuring every row of cubbies and figuring out which sizes of jars would fit in each and how many we would need. We then bought them all (likely from a store, this is pre-Amazon Prime), and chose the paint colors.

This is the only photo still on the internet of us painting them (this is before smart phones for photos or video – how did we even create daily content 12 years ago???). I’m not sure if we chose one blue and then diluted it increasingly with white to get the ombre effect OR if we chose a few shades and just played around with mixing them together as we moved up the wall of cubbies. Either way, it created this ombre look which I have to admit is still really fun.

What I Think About It Now

Is it gimmicky? Sure. And if they ever were to move or get rid of that piece they would have a lot of painted jars to deal with. However, it’s still a compelling wall of color that is simple for your eye to understand (i.e. not busy) and created a conversation. It’s also very 2012 in a really fun way. The pops of gold/silver of the lids as a nice shine and texture.

I don’t know if I would do it again, but still without an alternative solution I stand by why I did this. It ended up being around 60-75 jars (feel free to count) which cost about $230 (per my OG post about it) and then another $200 or so in other supplies. That’s not nothing and hilariously certainly doesn’t account for our time (which neither did I back then – a rookie mistake of my first few years of having design clients and why I ultimately ended up pivoting away from it). If you added up Orlando and I’s time to do this (likely 10 hours x 2 people) it would add about $3,500 in design labor. Which would take the entire project to $5k which is simply FAR too much for a fun DIY mason jar ombre art wall in a 3-year-old’s playroom. But doing DIYs for content is a different business, so I’m sure even at the time we felt it was worth donating our time to execute this DIY (but typical designers would never do this because it would simply cost their clients too much).

Wait, That’s. Not. All. What about those painted frames???

We didn’t shut off our creativity there, folks. We found a bunch of empty vintage frames at the flea market and thrift stores and painted them each 1/2 white, 1/2 gold. SO 2012!!! They housed kid art which I still think is a cute and clever idea, and could totally be updated in 2025.

And that’s the tale of the canning jar art installation wall from 2012. Shout out to Orlando for helping me do it (he was my design assistant at the time). We had so much fun, pre-kids, and I’m only sad that we don’t have a fun reel or video to show you.

So what would you do with these cubbies? I’m genuinely curious what other solutions would make sense! Comment away!!

*Photos by Bethany Nauert