From empties to stuff you’ll actually love using and telling people, “I made this”.
Those of us attracted to the self-satisfaction and frugal thrills of DIY know there’s a particular level of joy in turning something you might otherwise throw away into something cool and useful. Enter upcycled wine and spirit bottles.
So, what can you do with old wine and spirits bottles? We have the best DIY ideas, but safety equipment is essential here, so get your goggles, gloves and mask on, babe. Read on for six ideas for creating homemade homewares from empty bottles.
With this DIY, the bottles become the glasses. Retro-feeling, mismatched glassware is decidedly in. It’s been confirmed time and time again by our (always cool) Next-Gen Hosts. So whether you make tumblers from different bottles or from the same ones, it’s best to do when you have a stash because you’ll get one short tumbler per bottle – perfect for an Old Fashioned. In terms of equipment, this DIY doesn’t require a lot. A glass cutter, 400 grit wet and dry sandpaper, jugs of boiling and cold water, and a bucket. It’s important to get the score right with the glass cutter, or the glass can crack where you don’t want it to. Practise a few times on other bottles so you have it right for your good ones. You can watch the full tutorial here.
Best bottles to use: Ukiyo Blossom Gin has a gorgeous blue-glass base that will make nice tumblers, or a Bombay Sapphire Gin for a more square shape. For clear glass with an interesting base, Gerard Bertrand Cote des Roses Rosé is a gorgeous option, and there’s also a half-bottle size if you’d prefer a smaller glass.
Pouring your own scented candles is a hobby that can turn into an obsession, and then a small business. Do it. The candlemaker’s life is a peaceful one, and Etsy stores basically run themselves. Any bottle can be made into your candle holder, but ideally wider bottles will allow the scent to better permeate from the wax. You make the container the same way as the tumblers in #1, but here’s another full tutorial.
Best bottles to use: Opt for a coloured glass that goes with your decor, like Native & Ancient Marlborough Lo Fi Pinot Noir or interesting shaped glass, like the multifaceted La Dama Tequila Blanco or Freixenet Prosecco Magnum, for which you may need to add an extra wick or so because of the magnum size.
Decor and entertaining are all about a candlestick these days (sorry, pillar). Now, a candle in an empty wine bottle is nothing new, we’ve all been to those Italian restaurants, but there are some new rules for doing it modern and cool. Firstly, we’re not going for Miss Havisham vibes. Running these down the table shouldn’t look like you’re hosting The Addams Family. So you want new candles, and remove the wax rundown after each use or wrap them in a teatowel before putting them away so they don’t get dusty. You also want to use bottles with interesting, colourful labels, and coloured candlesticks, too. You won’t need flowers because the candle sticks will be lit (literally and figuratively).
Best bottles to use: Curate your wine bottle candle holders like a gallery wall. The colour of the glass, the label and the colour of the candle inserted into each bottle should all flow. Shady Lane Pet Nat Pinot has a great bright pink label, it would go beautifully by the Mouline De Gassac Pet Nat bottle, flanked by the black bottled Native & Ancient Marlborough Lo Fi Pinot Noir and green glass Quealy Turbul Friulano. Also, these are all tremendous wines to drink, which will mean they’ll become mementos of great memories as well as gorg table decor.
This is one for the cooks and kitchen creatives, and anyone who doesn’t quite polish off every bottle of wine they open, because you can use that bit of wine to create your own vinegar. There are a few methods to do this and the result is usually better than what you’d buy at the supermarket because you’re using decent wine. To create vinegar, you need to essentially “spoil” the wine. One way to do it is by putting all the wine dregs together until the bottle is half-filled, wrap it in cling film and a teatowel, and then drive around with it in the boot of your car for a month. Then you can infuse them or use it to preserve, pickle or make chutney. Vinegar lives well in a screw or cork top, so use one of the original wine bottles to store it – just soak off the labels and write a new one with your vinegar creation date, the wines used and what you infused it with (so you can recreate).
Best bottles to use: A wine bottle with a screwtop or a cork you can replace is perfect, and ideally, a clear or light-glass as you’ll be able to see what’s going on inside the bottle.
So many wine bottles are so pretty and vases are expensive, so making the former from the latter just makes sense! Empty and clean a wine or spirit bottle, and you’ve got a vase, but there are some extra touches you can do to make it look like it was always a vase. One method is to simply remove the bottle neck, so you have room for a wider bunch. This requires cutting the glass in the same way as the tumblers, just higher up the bottle. If you have an interesting-shaped bottle, like the Crystal Head Vodka, choose where you make the cut so the flowers will sit up straight. Interesting or coloured bottles look great on their own, but you can also go a step further and paint them. Using a base texture (look for ‘multipurpose joint compound at the hardware store) is super easy to apply and will leave your bottle looking like it’s made of clay. Cool, right?
Best bottles to use: Any, but magnums are a great size for vases because they’re just that bit bigger. Miraval Studio Rosé Magnum or Gerard Bertrand Cote des Roses Rosé Magnum are both great options, particularly if you’re a rosé enthusiast.
Got a bottle you really love and can see working in your bathroom? Has it got a screw top? Let’s make it your new refillable soap dispenser. The only thing you have to do for this DIY is find a pump top that will fit. You can do that by taking the bottle to IKEA or Kmart or any other home decor store and adopt the trial-and-error method, or you can measure the diameter of the top. Then look at the threads on the bottle top and use this guide to determine how many times they pass each other. Those two numbers give you the closure number to look for (it will be a fraction, such as 24/410 or 28/415), which you can then order online. Bunnings or Amazon should have lots of options for you. Then, why stop at soap? You can use this technique to have cool pump bottles for your shampoo, conditioner and body wash or apply it to the kitchen with sauce dispensers.
Best bottles to use: As there’s a pump lip for any bottle top, you have your choice of screwtop bottles. Just make sure the size will make sense in the space – a magnum of hand soap in your washroom might be a bit overwhelming.
