I have scads of these Harney & Sons tins of Hot Cinnamon Spice tea. I use them to store pencils and pins, hair ties — and everything else that needs a spot. Then, I found another use for them, once I realized that the fluorescent lights that lit up my countertop could be used as grow lights. So, these tins found another use — as herb planters. The color of the tins clashed with the countertops — Honestly — it’s just too bad I don’t buy this flavor more often because this tin would look great on my countertop
or even this pretty tin…
(I think I need to order more tea…) So, I painted the orange tins with Rustoleum’s Hammered Metal Spray paint — which looks awesome.
Using the plastic pot that the herbs came in, for drainage, I simply just pushed the pot into the tin. Soon, I realized that tins aren’t really water-tight, and I ended getting some dirty seepage all over the countertops.
So, I came up with this really easy fix — Plumber’s Putty. What a cheap fix! This is what plumbers use to fix leaky pipes — it’s waterproof to keep the water inside the pipe.
I actually had a powder — very old, that had been sitting in the basement that I simply mixed with water and poured into the bottom of the tin. I see now that it already comes pre-mixed. All you do is press the putty into the inside seals of the tin — and let it air dry for at least a few hours.
So now, take a look around your house and see what you might be able to transform into the perfect container to hold a plant — or maybe even a fish!