21 Uses for empty wine bottles around the house

Recently a couple of lovely ladies wrote on my Facebook page asking what ideas i have for recycling wine bottles for practical uses around the home. I thought I would do the subject justice and dedicate an entire post to it as I have to admit I am definitely a wine bottle hoarder. Some are just too pretty to chuck (the unfortunate side effect is that visitors to my house must thing I’m a raging alcoholic with all these empty wine bottles around the place!

Here are my favourite 21 ideas for how to recycle empty wine bottles for uses around the house.

1. The most obvious and commonly used is the vase option.

2. The light shade (please note you’ll need glass cutters to accomplish this one).

3. The candle holder.

4. The chandelier.

5. The shattered glass in concrete alternative to barbed wire (I spotted this in Sant Sadurni – Cava country in Spain)

6. A magnificent light display with fairy lights inside the bottles – perhaps to be used as a table decoration.

7. Paint them with black board paint and let your creative juices flow.

8. Make your own wine or beer and put it in your own custom wine bottles by using some of the decorating techniques above and below.

9. Cover them with some sort of retro paper for instant coolness.

10. Wine bottle mosquito coil stand.

11. Wine bottle planters.

12. Wine bottle shelves.

13. Get creative with your Wine Glass Writer pens!

14. Wine bottle fountain.

15. Stylish outdoor ‘tiki torch’ oil burners.

16. Boot supporters – pop empty bottles in your slouchy boots to help maintain their shape.

17. Candy jar -> Candy bottle. Great idea for adding quirk to a candy buffet at a dinner party or event to keep the little and big kids with a sweet tooth occupied.

18. Wine bottle bird feeder.

19. Wine bottle bracelet and jewellery holders.

20. Wine bottle hat rack.

21. Wine bottle olive oil, balsamic vinegar, etc dispensers.

Naturally for this post I had to devote many hours to Pinterest research (it’s seriously too easy to get lost in the world of Pinterest pins!!). As I’m a little paranoid about overstepping lines of copyright by placing other people’s images on my blog the above images are my own (I’m sure the photography amateur-ness probably gave that away!) however all the other ideas you’ll find images of in my new Wine Bottle Art board on Pinterest. Yes, I admit it, I totally got carried away! Click here to view my pins.

Since beginning working on this post I have now gone out and bought a glass cutter and ceramic diamond drill bit from Masters to hopefully make some creations of my own, so keep tuned folks there might be some ‘How to’ Travelling Corkscrew YouTube videos on the horizon!

I would love to see any creations you make yourselves, so please feel free to share your works of art with all the rest of us who love to empty wine bottles on Facebook.com/TravelCork.