How to Decorate with a Beverage Tub
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I enjoy decorating with my beverage tubs. Use them as intended with ice and beverages, or use your creativity to transform them into something else.
I found and purchased this beverage tub at my local Tuesday Morning store months ago, but they also sell them on Amazon. This was back when I was still shopping in stores. I also found one at an antique mall and purchased it.
A beverage tub, also known as a party tub, is a container designed to hold ice and keep drinks cold. People typically use it for entertaining at parties or events, but beverage tubs have many other uses.
Until now, I’ve used this beverage tub to hold and decorate with my houseplants.
Recently, some of them began to look a little peaked, so I relocated them outside under the tree branches for the summer. When fall arrives, I’ll be bringing them back inside.
Storing & Displaying Quilts
I also thought this tub would be perfect for storing folded quilts. I placed it underneath the barn painting, beneath the farmhouse gallery wall.
The beverage tub is filled with colorful quilts I sewed years ago. They are in the living room, where I can see and enjoy them the most.
Cozy quilts, folded in the beverage tub beneath the farmhouse gallery wall, seem to go together.
Below is a vignette with houseplants and vintage washboards.
Other Decorating Ideas
Another way to decorate with the beverage tub is to fill it with throw pillows, blankets, and throws for cold winter nights.
You could use a beverage tub in a bathroom to hold rolled-up towels or store toilet paper. If you have decent light in a bathroom, you could also put pretty houseplants in it. They would love the humidity.
A beverage tub can be so much more than a place to keep drinks cold, especially if you love repurposing ordinary things in pretty, unexpected ways.
- Use it for seasonal decorating – Fill it with pumpkins and gourds in autumn, or a small Christmas tree during the holidays. Add spring flowers when the weather warms.
- Create a cottagecore vignette – Place a beverage tub beside a garden bench with an old watering can, potted plant, lantern, and a stack of gardening books.
- Make a simple ice-and-flower display – For entertaining, float flowers, lemons, or herbs in ice around bottles of lemonade or sparkling water. It turns the practical drink tub into part of the tablescape.
Ways to Decorate With a Beverage Tub Outdoors
- Create a porch planter – Fill it with trailing flowers, geraniums, ferns, or a mix of colorful annuals. A galvanized tub looks especially sweet with cottage-style flowers spilling over the edges.
- Make a charming herb garden – Use a smaller beverage tub to grow basil, thyme, rosemary, mint, or parsley right outside your kitchen door.
- Turn it into a gardening station – Keep hand tools, gloves, seed packets, and small pots together in a tub. It can look decorative while still being genuinely useful.
- Make a cozy firewood holder – A sturdy metal beverage tub can hold a small supply of firewood beside an outdoor fireplace or wood-burning stove.
There are so many fun ways to display decorative vignettes using a beverage tub. If you see one at a good price, you might want to buy it.
Instead of hiding useful things away, you can turn them into decor.
Lovely! Those bright quilts remind me of summer picnics.
What a great idea. Did the stand come with it too? I saw on one of the home improvement shows where they took an old pie safe and filled it with blankets and quilts. It was somewhere in Mississippi so I’m guessing mostly year long warm weather. I say… do what you love. I love seeing what you have to share… out of the box decorating gets new ideas rolling. I figuring it’s fun to be playful with the smaller things unlike kitchen cabinets… etc. Those aren’t as easy to change up as decor is.
Yes, the stand came with it.
Brenda,
what a smart choice you made purchasing that beverage tub with it’s stand. I smiled, when you stated “I just decorate how I like when I like.” Your beautiful quilts would make anyone feel happy to gaze upon them! I also loved your pictures of your plant vignettes. Feels like a very happy, healthy and pretty home!
Have a wonderful 4th
Susan
Hi Brenda,
I like it both ways. Love the piece.
Happy 4th.
I remember people picking up a tub like this at the post office at college.
Brenda, You always come up with the best ideas!!! Sandy
What great ideas, Brenda! It looks beautiful both ways – with plants and quilts.
Quilts have a way of looking both old-fashioned and modern at the same time. The same goes for metal tubs. So, they make a great combination. I like how that word “Creative” on a book cover is visible below the tub.
Oh Brenda – love this so much and your quilts are wonderful! Love their colors! Thanks, as always, for the inspiration you share.
Mary
Love the way you decorate! You have a good eye
I LOVE this!You have such a creative eye and it’s such a bright spot where you have it,the quilts look amazing!
Brenda you never cease to amaze me with your decorating ideas.
I love this one, I will be looking out for these beverage tubs now,
Thank you.
Love the quilts in the beverage container. I have an old copper container much the same shape that I think I’ll fill with quilts. I’d love to have houseplants but my two cats think otherwise. There not as good as Ivy at leaving the plants alone. Love your new bread box also. You find the best things on Amazon ! Stay safe & be well.
That’s really pretty
You are the queen of vignettes. Thanks for the ideas.
I love LOVE your beverage tub, and would be the perfect solution to a problem I have! Did the stand come with it? I presume so, since it fits so perfectly.
I just love your decorating style. I’m kind of like that too, no modern, no country, no shabby chic, but all of the above! Whatever strikes my fancy!
Yes, the stand came with it. I think the whole thing was about $69.
What a great idea. You are adding pops of color to your decor, which is perfect to chase away the worries of all that is happening. One of my plants has died so I am going to have to replace it. It was in a pretty little pot that I love. Wish I had a place to put some of mine outside for the summer. They always seem to grow more then. xo Laura
I also love quilts and you are so talented that you made your own. Everything inside and outside your home looks lovely. You have your piece of paradise in your home and garden. I went to the grocery store yesterday at 7:00 before the crowds so we are stocked up, and will stay home for a week or so. It is a comforting feeling to be happy and content at home. Have a wonderful weekend!
I went to the grocery yesterday during senior hour and will not be going out at all over the weekend.
I love the idea of using a beverage tub for decorating. You gave me the idea to buy one and put it in my spare room for storing quilts ! I would put plants in it in my livingroom but I don’t have any room for it there. I have an old cradle that was my grandmothers, so it must be at least 150 yrs old, that I put my plants in !
The cradle sounds like a wonderful idea!