Expertises: Architecture, Design, Art, Home improvement, Painting
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Empty wine bottles stare in the face of wine drinkers like a big question mark asking what they will do with the empty lot once they are finish pouring sparkling white wine and textured French red wine in their goblets. The answer lies in choosing one of the two available alternatives: get rid of them or do something awe-inspiring. It is the inclination to choose the latter solution that has created a space for decorative wine bottle crafts, which, in turn, will also help the environment. It is important to add here that not all wine-bottle decorative ideas are too exciting to dissuade people from throwing the empty bottles away and trying their hands at decorating their house and garden with wine bottles. However, there are some ideas that can strongly put the case forward. In this article, we will show you how empty wine bottles can be used for lighting a house in a way that will inspire others to follow suit.
Light it up turn it into a lamp
Source: Handy Crowd
One of the ways in which an empty wine bottle can help in adorning a home is turning itself into a LED lamp. To function as such a wine bottle, an AA batter box, 2 AA batteries and a glass cutting drill bit to make a hole near the bottom of the bottle for power cable to pass will be required. The LED lamp created from these materials will brightly shine on a corner table. It can also be placed on shelves or anywhere that needs to be accentuated by decorative light, all thanks to its portable power source.
Typically white LED lights are used to make such lamps, but other colorful variants can be used instead should the bottle be white. If the former is chosen, the color of the light will depend on the bottle color, and in the later case on the color of LED lights placed in the bottle. For example, the bottle used in the above image is blue so the light that comes out is blue, whereas, light looks more yellowish and greenish in yellow and green bottles, as shown below.
Photo: Wendell T. Webber
Source: Useful DIY Projects
Decorating these bottles using ribbons, flowers or any other decorative items will make them look even classier.
Source: The Yes Girls Event
Make a colorful pendant light
Source: Mod Podge Rocks
Making a pendant light with wine bottles is trickier than the one suggested above, but the reward is so beautiful that it is worth the effort. The most challenging part of the process is cutting the wine bottles. Just having a bottle cutter kit will not make the process easy. It will need some practice to get the precision. The following video and the link serve as a useful guide on how to cut a wine bottle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kSVgzCgmok
The next step in the process is to paint the bottle from the inside to get a colorful set of evenly cut and sandpapered wine bottles. The step is followed by adding wires, bulbs, bulb holders and plug to complete the wine bottle pendent light or chandelier.
As mentioned above, cutting wine bottles is a challenging task, so many will not venture towards cutting more than one or two bottles. In such cases, the following kind of wine bottle pendant light can be made. It works when used alone as well. The outer surface of the empty bottles can be embellished with paint or copper wires could be wrapped around randomly to give it a rugged look.
Source: DIY Network
Some more wine bottle chandeliers
Source: DIY Network
Source: Etsy
Source: Wanelo
Source: Instructables
Source: Flickr
Turn empty bottles into candles
When the article is about recycling substance, which can be argued to be about saving earth as well, should not it share wine bottle lighting craft ideas that are not dependent completely on electricity? It should and this is exactly what the next idea is about. It is about turning empty wine bottles into candles. This also involves cutting wine bottles, so it is necessary to try one's hand at cutting wine bottles with precision. The skill will be helpful in all kind of wine bottle crafts.
Different colored wine bottles should be cut in various sizes, some in half, some more than half, around 2/3rd of the total size, while others of 1/4th of the bottle. The variations in size will create candles of all sizes, which will look attractive when placed together. Uniformity is not always desired in design.
When talking about wine bottle chandeliers, to practice cutting wine bottles to achieve precision in getting the desired output because if that is achieved the entire wine bottle will become useful. For instance, a wine bottle candle only requires the bottom part of the bottle to hold molten wax. The top part can be used in making pendant lights, as discussed above.
Source: Saved By Love Creation
Simple candles work well in daily use or in a garden where the purpose is more functional than aesthetic, but when there is an occasion to celebrate these minimalist candles may not find a place in the decor. Therefore, it is required that decorated candles are made from wine bottles. Decorating the wine bottles in the spirit of the festivity with flowers, ribbons, paints or colorful papers will give the candles a whole new appeal. The resultant candle set can also be used for gifting.
Source: Lovely Greens
Hurricane candles with empty wine bottles
It is about doubling the empty bottle as hurricane candle. This also involves cutting wine bottles to size. However, do not cut it in half, as suggested above. Only the bottom of the wine bottle should be removed to make a hurricane candle. It is always better that 3 or more similar wine bottles of one color be used to make a set of hurricane candles to make it look beautiful,two of which should be cut in an equal size. Two or more inches from the bottom should be sliced to get two long ones and the third one should be cut in half to get the smaller one for a set of 3 hurricane candles. If the bottle is sliced with precision, the bottom half can also be used as well to make candles, as suggested in the advice on making candles.
Source: Yahoo Makers
Wine bottle candles for special occasions
Wine bottles reused as lamps can also be used to create the mood for that special candle light dinner or when you dine out in your garden and wind is all set to refuse you a chance to look deep into her eyes in the shimmering candle light. Some examples of which are listed below. The ideas presented may not show decorated wine bottles, but when graced with flowers, colorful paper, ribbons, pearls or any other decorative items the candle will look even more beautiful.
Source: Recycle Art
Photo: Alex Bandon
Transform empty bottles into candelabra
A discussion of special dinners or dinner dates cannot be complete without talking about candelabra. Does it need mentioning that empty wine bottles can be used as candelabra as well? There are quite a few wine bottle candelabras circling around to inspire DIY geeks as well as home owners to create their own set of candelabras from empty wine bottles lying in the home, waiting to be thrown out. Some inspirations to make your own candelabras are shown below.
Source: Green Head
Source: Park Designs
Source: Houzz
Source: Zulili
The above ideas might look great, there is no doubt about that, but such decorative candles may not be suitable for all occasions or they may not find a place in all design schemes. There are many occasions when minimalistic decorative items are preferred over the much fancier ones and there are also many people who like things when they are at their bare minimum. The following candelabra will suit the minimalist taste.
Message in the wine bottle
When things are spoken about empty wine bottles, it is imperative that the classical message in the bottle is not overlooked. For hundreds of years empty bottles have functioned as carriers of messages. The job of passing messages should not be taken away from empty wine bottles. There are ways in which it can be done, but how remarkable will it be when it is done on a wine bottle doubling as candelabra? All that is required for this is a glass itching kit, empty bottles and a message to itch on the wine bottle.
Source: Club Chica Circle
EMPTY WINE BOTTLES doubling as citronella Tiki torch
Insects and mosquitoes make it difficult for people to enjoy the calm summer breeze in the outdoor garden in the evening unless one re-purposes wine bottles for that. This does not sound intuitive, but empty wine bottles can double as an outdoor light source and also function as mosquito and insect repellent if used as citronella tiki torches. Making a citronella candle tiki torch is simple and does not require much equipment. The video following this paragraph shows the way to make a basic one. One can always decorate the bottle to make it look more attractive. The least one can think of is filling the bottom of the bottle with colorful pebbles, as shown in the two images following the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwfRcQ25vu0
Source: Hello Glow
Source: The Armchair Sommelier
To conclude
Empty wine bottles, beer cans, tin cans are not wasted until they are thrown away. There are always ways in which empty bottles and cans can be used. The article has limited its scope to using wine bottle crafts to light up a house and garden, but the scope of empty bottle crafts does not end here. There are many beautiful things that can be done with empty wine bottles,one just needs to explore. Home Lighting Ideas Expressed With Wine Bottle Crafts We would love to hear your feedback on this topic in the comment section below.
