Make a Colorful Candle Centerpiece

Spring is coming and I am ready for more color in my home. Not, that I don't always have some color in my home. In MY world too much white is a yawn fest and I get plenty of white with our snowy outdoors. I gathered some colorful vases from the thrift stores to create a bright and cheerful candle centerpiece for spring and summer.

I knew I wanted vases in the colors of the rainbow. It took a bit of hunting to find six different vases--red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them, but was happy when I found vases that were all a little different from each other.

I could have used them as vases, adding fake or fresh flowers. But, I am not  huge fan of fakes and buying fresh flowers weekly is not in my budget. (If we had a Trader Joe's in Montana, then it might be affordable.) It would make a great propagation station for houseplant starts.

I decided to add tapered candles to the vases. First, using a funnel, I filled the vases with Epsom salts. I could have used sand, but I didn't have any pretty white sand. The Epsom salt lets the bright color of the vases shine through and I can reuse the salt when I am done with it. White rice was another thought, but I try not to use food products in my decor. My Teaching Elementary Art teacher in college urged us to not use food for art because it really speaks to our first world privilege, that we value food so little that we use it for art projects. I don't always follow this rule, but I do try.

I had to whittle down the end of the taper candles for the red and yellow vase. I used an old knife to cut extra wax off.

I placed the colorful vases on a gold metal tray. I used antique gold Rub-n-Buff on the tray. The gold seems appropriate since gold is at the end of a rainbow. This is the same tray I used for my herbs I had here that have since died. 

I might add a black beaded garland to the tray, but I do like the simplicity of this. It sits in the center of my raised, kitchen counter. It is bright and cheerful even when the candles aren't lit and adds a nice glow when the candles are burning.

Simple, inexpensive, repurposed and upcyled, and cheerful--perfect!