Vintage Teacups and Tea Lights Made a Dresser Display Without Pouring Wax

I put tea lights into vintage teacups from my family collection and arranged them on our bedroom dresser. This was a display using separate candles, rather than a project that involved pouring wax into the cups.

Using cups passed down through the family

The teacups came from an aunt and my father-in-law. I wanted to enjoy them on display rather than leave them stored away.

I had seen teacup candles on a wedding site that attributed them to Anthropologie, with a price of about $23 per cup at the time. That inspired me to try an arrangement with pieces I already owned.

Tea lights and music-paper roses

I simply added a tea light to each teacup. There was no wax-making step. The music-note roses came from an antique mall for $5 and joined the dresser arrangement.

Enjoying the collection on the dresser

The arrangement let me bring several favorite cups into view and use the family china in a different way.

For a different approach that makes candles inside the cups, the original post also pointed to Martha Stewart’s teacup-lights tutorial. My book-page JOY letters offer another way to use printed paper in a display.