The $0 European Decor Trick That’ll Make Your Most Stylish Friend Think You’re a Genius

Traveling to different home trade shows is a big part of my job, and sometimes it’s hard for me to fully turn my editor brain off after a day of scouting new products and design trends. The fallout? I’m always looking at my surroundings and snapping photos of clever decorating ideas I see “in the wild.” And what I mean by that, of course, is that every restaurant, museum, hotel, store, and so on has something to share. You just have to find it! My 65,000-photo phone camera roll is certainly proof.  

I just scrolled past a gem of a hack I forgot to share from last fall, when I went to cover IFA Berlin in Germany. Post-show, a group of journalists and IFA show publicists shared a lovely lunch at a cute Mediterranean restaurant. The food was great, but, in typical me form, I was fixated on the way the clean utensils and paper napkins were corralled on the table: in a simple chickpea can with a graphic patterned sticker. Not only was this display idea cute, but it also kept the somewhat small table clear of clutter until the food came. And no one had to ask for a new fork or knife because the can had extras at the ready. 

Now, I know this isn’t a totally groundbreaking idea, but it did get me thinking that maybe the last thing you do with a can (before recycling it!) should be to clean it out and reuse it for a bit as functional decor. A friend from the same Berlin trip later sent me another example of this idea — this time at a bar in Ireland. There, next to the typical compartmented bar garnish tray, a bright can held fresh mint garnishes for drinks. You could easily do that on an at-home bar cart when entertaining. But why stop there? Depending on the size of the can, you could serve charcuterie or fries this way at a party. 

Once I got back home, I began noticing cute cans showing up as decor in other spaces, too. A cleaned-out can of tomatoes became a vase for flowers at my local pizza place. I saw pens in another can at a cash wrap in a nearby sundry store. Don’t have a utensil crock? Use a can!

It all comes down to finding a can with a cute label full of something you actually want to consume. Or you can just do what the Berlin restaurant did: Add your own sticker or DIY flourish to a labeled can (or peel off the label entirely to go for an industrial look). Then, the options for displaying and organizing really could be endless. Thank you, German restaurant, for just the right amount of creativity to spark an idea for me.