Maybe just some plain white labels and some fancy writing,calligraphy.Or look thru catalogs and magazines and cut out the words or letters you need.

And where do we see pictures of this wonderful room.By the way congratulations on getting/making it.
Kathi

wonderful ideas, one and all. i will use a combination of them and i think i will have this problem solved. thanks so much, everyone. i really do appreciate that people on these forums take the time to help each other! xoxo, molly
ps check out organizing the home for more ideas for my dilemma.

Hi - I'm guessing you don't want to damage the surface of any vintage items?
Martha Stewart had a cute idea from awhile back: using hanging tags/labels w/ contents written on 'em - this was for old suitcases & the tags' strings were tied to handles.

Not sure if that'd work for tins, but something I've been doing a lot of lately is spelling out contents on containers w/ scrapbooking sticker alphabets found @ dollar stores & similar.

& magnets might work well on metal - I was imagining flat wood, cardboard or plastic, or even flexible magnetic sheets .....

My daughter-in-law bought me an inexpensive laminator. I love it. I have made the cutest tags and hung them on boxes and such. I use brown paper, scrapebook paper and even newspaper for the backgrounds. I get lots of compliments on them.. They stay so nice for years to come. I also use them for the see thru boxes. I use plain white paper and use large letters to be able to see instantly what is in the boxes. What a life saver and no hunting..