I don't think I've ever seen fake canned goods. If you can't turn any up, you could try lining up empty mason jars or the like. I always see beautiful jars in antique and vintage shops (and ebay), you could start a collection with jars of different sizes, colors and textures.

Fake canned goods? I'm not sure this qualifies as a "good question."

Hi, I have seen some decorative bottles with corn/carrot/peas in them with burlap on the top in Dollar Stores. They looked fine to me as less expensive kitchen decor and they come in several funky shapes. You could try them or you could make your own jar with a little formalin (I do not know where you could get them in here in USA).

You probably will find you don't like dusting up there anyway, but I think vintage Ball jars (the blue ones with wires) is a good suggestion. Or just put grains and beans in jars--it's a great storage alternative to plastic.

I don't think there's any such thing as fake canned goods. How about filling canning jars with dry goods, like rice, beans, grains, etc.? Keeping dry goods in glass jars cuts down on potential pest problems while looking pretty.

I used to do dry goods in them. Dried orange slices, bananas, beans, rice. Anything with a nice pattern or color to it. Or empties! I've seen these lids they have with solar LED lights in them. Kind of expensive if you are doing a lot of them but they are on Amazon and eBay. Sometimes sold in bulk for events. Might look nice with different colored jars depending on your style. Good luck on the hunt!

I started canning about 4 years ago and still have a few jars of pickled peppers, jalepeno jelly, pickled garlic, etc. that I saved just to save. They still look beautiful and I have them sitting out in my kitchen to remind me of that first summer. : ) I was a little confused by your question though....hope this helps.

All I want to say is that the question made me laugh.

Yes, I have seen bottles of decorative canned / pickled stuff, like peppers, herbs or garlic in olive oil. Never thought that someone would try to find them.

Sasmita, formalin (formaldehyde) is a carcinogen and doesn't belong in a kitchen! If you're going to can something for decorative use, I'd suggest sticking to safer substances like vinegar.

I also find the idea of fake canned goods a little weird. I like the suggestions of dry goods or empty decorative jars to be much more attractive.

Why don't you just print out or buy paper that looks like fruit/veggies and put them inside empty jars? Not like anyone will be close enough to tel the difference if they're above your cabinets.

Check thrift stores for old jars, and fill them with your dry goods - there are a wealth of colored pastas, beans, rice, split peas, and lentils out there. In addition to storing long, these foods are good inexpensive staples.

Hobby Lobby has loads of this stuff.

I guess I'm not sure why you wouldn't use actual canned goods, which are meant to be put by for quite some time. As long as they are canned properly, I don't see that they would have to be changed very often.

... Fake canned goods? Seriously??

Use empty jars or fill them with dried goods (dried citrus looks lovely) if you're particularly keen on the look. But, seriously, if you're not into the canning/preserving/home-kitchen-foodie thing, perhaps a different scheme for your kitchen would reflect your actual life and interests more closely?

I like the dry goods in mason jars as suggested by tarainsevenvalleys is a good idea.

More decorative, you could put mason jars with the insides painted in the space (or the outsides painted in a matte spraypaint).

Like these suggestions from AT previous posts:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/diy-idea-black-mason-jars-for-159580
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/floral-inspiration-mason-jar-vases-169465

I think anything fake will look extremely tacky.

I thought it was April 1st with this one...

The paper with faux fruit or whatever is a great idea, so is the dried beans, etc. But really, the idea of searching out fake jarred stuff seems just so tacky. And the bottles I have seen in TJ Maxx, etc look slimy inside, not appetizing at all!

Ages ago, I scored big at a flea market—someone was selling vintage food labels and putting them on empty cans. The Elkay berry cans were lovely stacked on my counter and cabinets. That said, you might want to consider that as an option. Just find some colorful vintage food labels online, print them out, and put them on cans yourself. If you're heart's set on the canning jars, though, I'd simply fill them with water and toy/plastic fruit. It would look colorful and be easy to clean! Hope that helps!

My mother used to can fruits and vegetables when I was a little girl. The mason jars were filled with tomatoes, green beans, beets, corn, peaches, etc, and they were beautiful - lovely, in jewel-toned colors that caught the light. After having seen the "real thing," I can't imagine trying to duplicate them with "fake" fruits and veggies. There are some areas of the country that sell home-canned fruits an vegetables, I'm sure. But if you can't obtain them, I'd just use mason jars to hold dried beans and pastas, as some of the others suggested.

Home Goods, T.J. Maxx, or Marshalls.

Haha! I love this question! You are a very creative and probably silly mind! I don't know about fake canned foods but you can probably go to Michaels or other craft stores and see what they have and make your own. Or you can get different colored clear jars with a vintagey feel to decorate with instead. Good luck!

Maybe make a bunch of candles in mason jars?

The thought of this makes me feel itchy.

I feel like they make mason jar candles that have wax fruit in them somewhere. I've definitely seen a candle that looked like a straight up cherry pie that I was tempted to slice up.

How about cans instead? Find cans of stuff with interesting labels -- like, say, Italian tomatoes. Open them carefully from the bottom to preserve the labels. Wash them out -- again, carefully, to keep the labels intact.

I'm not one for filling up every single space, though.

I'm of the mind that "country" and "chic" do not exist together.

This is a strange idea. Why would you not just put actual canned food up there; form AND function.

Or, is there something better you could do with the space? Wine bottle cubby holes, maybe?

What about colorful pottery instead? Or you could to baskets - both are very country.

Real canned goods last a long time... that's the point. Just put real ones up there. You could take them down and eat them eventually but even if you never did, it's still probably cheaper and much easier than finding fake ones...

I've seen them too at TJMaxx.

I've wondered who buys all that never-intended-for-the-plate "decorative" canned stuff at Ross and other discount stores. Now I know.

Why not get creative and fill mason jars with marbles, golf balls, pebbles, fake fruit, pom poms?

Haha, like others, I found this question funny. And like others, I like the dry goods in jars idea!

What a fantastic idea ! I would look for faux food, or movie props.
Here is a link http://www.ehow.com/how_5093039_preserve-food-display.html to DIY fake display foods. I hope this helps. Also, there is a product used with fake flower arrangements that looks like water. You could use a little color art paint, and "suspend" the fruit and vegetables (buy bunches like grapes, raspberries,blueberries, sliced pickles and rip them apart so they are individual...) Fill the canning jars, pour in the faux floral water and let it set. Viola !

Crystal, please don't do this!

If the "fake" goods are truly inedible, they might be a bad idea to keep around. I can just imagine some unsuspecting relative or house guest opening a jar and laying into the poisonous produce.

The point of canning is that it makes stuff last for a very very long time. Just use REAL canned goods. (As long as it's properly canned, you can't just put stuff in the jars and screw the lid on)

Ouch, there is quite a bit of harsh in this crowd! Taste is relative and frankly most people who knock others for their taste in design are trend followers, not trend makers. Keep calm and orange or grey anyone? Sheesh!

Answer the question nicely or don't. Everything else is just snobbery.

To the question asker -

Iridescent or plain white marbles are pretty inexpensive. You could fill the jars with varying levels for a lighter effect to keep the space from being too dark.

If you do lots of cooking, the jars will quickly get greasy and dusty but a quick swipe with all appliance pledge or similar will make them easier to clean the next time.

Good luck!

Also, this link ...http://www.gandgwebstore.com/fake-fruit-vegetable-1/

Best,
Elise

You can just use mason jars filled with beans, etc.
Also check places like Ross, Marshall's, TJ Maxx for fancy bottles of olive oil, decorative tins, etc.
You can also check flea markets for vintage tins, etc.
You can even print labels off the net and paste them on empty cans, if that works for you.

Oy, Honey.

Did anyone see when Barbra Streisand was on Oprah, and they showed her home where she recreated an entire shopping mall in her basement complete with "Ye Olde Timey" store fronts? It was awful. That's what this question reminds me of. Sorry.

But if advice is really wanted... a bunch of clear glass mason jars sound fine if you need to. However, as someone who keeps all his glass vases and bowls up high on top of his kitchen cabinets, Ill say that, while the glass looks nice, they have to come down and be dusted and washed. A LOT.

I really tried not to be snobby. If Crystal were a friend of mine and proudly showed me her kitchen, I'd smile widely and tell her how cute it looked. However, since she posed her question in a public forum I felt a bit more ballsy. Things that are fake that SHOULD be alive (e.g. plants, fruits and veggies) are just kind of depressing, to be honest. She could do a lot better with that space--or nothing at all, and it would still be better than fake canned goods.

I just had another odd idea for this...fill mason jars with water or vinegar died with food coloring). Line them up in color groups. Could be pretty and sort of...oh...referential.

In college, I had a preference for a juice drink that came in an interesting glass bottle. I saved the bottles, soaked off the labels, and filled about 20 of them with water. Each bottle got a varying number of food coloring drops in order to create a cascade of several colors. Then I lined them up in color order along a long windowsill. Cheap and eye catching, and the water didn't mold or anything after a year (though you could use some kind of vinegar or alcohol if you were worried about that).

Hilarious!
What better way to mock the idea of thriftiness and healthy lifestyle of home canning jars than put up rows of fake ones? Come on Apartment Therapy, keep it real.

Maybe old olive oil tins? That's not too gross.

Why not paint or tint the inside of some canning jars and keep empty ones up there? You can find lots of tutorials online for doing both online - it's easy and can be pretty if you choose the right colours.

O_o

Um, please don't. Just leave the space above your cupboards bare. You don't have to fill every empty nook and cranny. In fact, negative space is an essential component of a well designed room.

Eh, weird. I hate seeing stuff generally on top of kitchen cabinets. Looks cluttered. Sounds expensive to buy too. If you are set on this, just buy some pretty canning jars and fill them up with canned vegetables like tomatoes.....

Lookin' around...I love jars and it makes me mad all the mean comments...ironically one set of wonderful images is right from here!

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/small-storage-s-1-127751

and this image from Flickr...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/57992204@N07/5591764918/

I use them to collect little things that don't have a place and have probably 6 or 7 full including a lamp. I use them as bookends, too. I can only imagine the comments if I ever posted my collection here. *rolls eyes*

Decorate with what YOU love!

I don't remember where I read this quote, but the gist of it was "never keep anything on your kitchen counters that you can't cook with our eat." Good advice.

This seemed to me almost like one of those questions to Dear Abby that was obviously cooked up by someone as a joke. But if I'm wrong, apologies. Canned foods, if canned properly, should pretty much last until the next millenium: go to your nearest state fair to pick some up.

Real canned goods continue to "look good" for years and years...I don't think I've ever seen them look bad? I think the dried goods suggestion is good. Personally, I think authentic stuff looks better than faux...

But if you're really set on the faux... You might consider printing out high quality glossy prints of canned food and attaching the print to the inside of textured mason jars. If there is not a lot of sunlight on the jars, the print should last a while.

@tarainsevenvalleys, the question writer wants to use fake canned goods as a decorative element. I didn't see any fake canned goods in the pictures you referenced. Rather I saw examples of things that the "mean" commenters here have suggested as better alternatives. So what's your point?

does anyone know where i can get blank books but with colored spines? i don't read but love the look of a rainbow arranged library!

Andy Warhol Campbell soup available at Target
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/story/2012-08-29/campbell-soup-andy-warhol-target/57399686/1

I just think this is a very, very bad idea. I try not to have my home look too trendy/predictable (See F*** Your Noguchi Coffee Table) but even worse, I wouldn't want to be labeled as The Crazy Lady With Fake Food In Her Kitchen.

I'm already the Crazy French Bulldog lady with a "nursery" for her puppy. But that just shows that even if I think this sounds weird/creepy that it's probably not the best idea!

Go to a farmer's market and buy pretty things canned in jars (tomatoes, green beans, pickles, peppers, honey, etc.) Use them. Replace as necessary. They'll look great, and there's no waste.

Well, JEN, if you actually read and comprehend what she's saying she meant canned goods in canning jars.

"canning jars", "I don't want to have to have to replace them regularly, though. Do you know where I could find some fake or decorative canned goods?"

When they go bad they get cloudy and look gross. She was looking for another option.

And, JEN, apparently you didn't see my original idea toward the top...

I used to do dry goods in them. Dried orange slices, bananas, beans, rice. Anything with a nice pattern or color to it. Or empties! I've seen these lids they have with solar LED lights in them. Kind of expensive if you are doing a lot of them but they are on Amazon and eBay. Sometimes sold in bulk for events. Might look nice with different colored jars depending on your style. Good luck on the hunt!

HA! This reminds me of that godawful craft Lauren Conrad just got skewered for posting on YouTube. Cutting up books in order to glue the spines to boxes!

There's no rule that says mason jars have to be filled with food items. I use them for buttons, safety pins, spools of thread, and all sorts of other stuff that would otherwise go in a junk drawer.

Not fake, but decorative jars of various foods are often sold at Home Goods and TJ Maxx in the housewares section.

I"ve also seen jars of preserves for sale at farmer's markets. It's real food, of course, but it's preserved so you could just leave it there as a decoration.

Home canning is also a fun and surprisingly easy thing to do. I just started a couple of years ago and my pantry is filled with pickles, jams & jellies, and other preserves. If you don't want to eat them, you could always just leave them on the shelf - selecting foods by how they look and not worrying about how they taste.

candles that come in jars or you could make your own candles and put them in mason jars

Red marbles in red water look like cherries, You could use all-of-one-color marbles to fill the jars....without colored water.