Making a miniature canister set is a quick and easy project and can be totally customized to your dollhouse decor. Read on for a detailed tutorial!
A canister set was a staple in our kitchen when I was growing up in the 1970s. I distinctly remember two different ceramic kitchen canister sets from my childhood. One set was white with different colored flowers and each canister had a name for the contents printed in the same font as the masthead of a newspaper: Flour, Sugar, Coffee, Tea. The other canisters I remember were a set of four different sized roosters. They were gold with red combs and very funky. I’m pretty sure that set is still in my dad’s basement.
Side note: if you want to go down a fun little inspirational rabbit hole, google “1970s kitchen canister set“😍
Naturally, my dollhouse had to have a kitchen canister set as well. I still have the miniature canister set from my original dollhouse kitchen, but it didn’t fit the vibe for the crazy, colorful renovation so I made new ones. Inspired by the kitchen canisters in this DIY dollhouse kitchen, I came up with my tutorial.
Gather Your Materials
- Small wooden spools
- Buttons
- Beads
- Paint
- Tacky glue
- Bamboo skewer or dowel
- Assorted paintbrushes
- Mod Podge
- Optional: thrifted cookbook (small paperback preferred), bead caps
How To Make A Miniature Canister Set
Decide on how many canisters you want in your set.
For each canister, use one wooden spool and one or two buttons. You want the first button to be as close as possible to the same size as the top of the spool. The optional second button should be a bit smaller. The buttons will serve as the canister lids.
Set the buttons aside and paint each of the spools.
Tip: if you thread each spool onto a skewer or dowel you don’t have to hold the spool with your fingers and it’s easier to paint.
Allow the painted spools to dry completely.
In the meantime, decide on the design for your miniature canister set. Here are a few ideas:
- paint all canisters the same solid color
- paint each canister in a different solid color
- paint each canister a solid color then add a pattern
For each canister, glue the button(s) onto the painted spool.
Next, paint the buttons to suit your design. It took several quick coats of acrylic craft paint to cover the buttons completely.
Now it’s time to label the canisters. I like to cut words out of vintage cookbooks to use as labels. Of course I often get distracted by the recipes and illustrations, but that’s part of the fun.
You can label the canisters with traditional contents (ie flour, sugar, tea) or something a bit unexpected.
Use Mod Podge or gel medium to attach the cut text labels onto each canister. Allow to dry.
Seal each canister, including the label, with a coat or two of Mod Podge.
Finish off each canister by glueing a small bead onto the center of each button using a dab of tacky glue.
There you have it, a complete set of customized miniature canisters for your dollhouse!
This was actually the third set I’ve made using this tutorial, take a look…
See the whole dollhouse kitchen these canisters live in and lots of other ideas and inspiration: DIY Dollhouse Makeover Colorful Kitchen Tour.
Now that you have an entire package (or two) or wooden spools, you can make customize miniature canisters to use in your dollhouse bathroom, craft room, or wherever else you need a creative container!
xo,
Jen
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