Old Nutcracker Dish to Christmas Candy Dish Makeover

by Angie @ Ambient Wares

14 Materials

Easy

I see these old wooden nutcracker dishes fairly often when I'm out thrifting. You know, the ones that hold the utensils?
I didn't do much to alter it but, sometimes it's the little changes that make all the difference.

old nutcracker dish to christmas candy dish makeover

I knew I wanted it Christmas themed but, beyond that, I wasn't really sure. I could have easily just filled the holes with wood filler and been done with it but, I wanted to add a little height.

So, I found the other half of the wooden finial I'd used to create this lid and to my surprise it fit almost perfectly.

I then found these little glass top finials from who knows what. I only needed one and it too miraculously fit into where the original screw was before I chopped the wooden finial in half for the last project.

I also had to figure out how best to attach the wooden finial to the dish. I put a piece of tape over the original handle where the utensils went and, using the 2 largest holes as guides, poked through the tape

I then removed the tape from the base and put it on the bottom of the wooden finial so I'd know where to drill the holes. My thought was to insert small dowels into the holes plus add glue for more strength.

I've had these little craft sticks forever and they were just shy of being a perfect fit. I marked what I thought was a decent length and cut with a saw using a miter box.

Once the dowels were in place on the base, I spread wood glue and fit the finial on top matching it up with the dowels and weighed it down with weights letting it dry overnight.

After the glue was dried, I used wood filler along the seam that was created by joining the two pieces together. I had also made a mistake when drilling and drilled a hole right through the finial which I had to fill as well.

After doing a couple of layers of filler, letting it dry, and sanding, I painted it with a few coats of a vibrant red color. I didn't prime which you could do but, I don't mind the look of it.

Unfortunately you could see the huge seam made by connecting the pieces so I found a cute little red & silver ric rac I had, cut it to size and glued it around the mid section.

Of course this can hold anything, including nuts but, if you're concerned about paint touching your food, I'd stick with the wrapped goodies or ornaments or garland; whatever you want. It could also be lined with a napkin or paper doily, etc. I think it has a slight North Pole feeling to it, no?