This past spring Daniel and I went on a road trip from San Francisco to the Grand Canyon. Along the way we stopped at Chateau Julien for a wine tasting. I wanted to do something with the empty bottle instead of throwing it in the recycling bin. So here it is!
You’ll need:
an empty wine bottle
a drill
safety glasses and gloves (just in case the bottle breaks)
1/2″ glass drill bit
masking tape
short strand of Christmas lights (with a plug only on one end)
How to:
1. Rinse out your wine bottle and remove the labels (if desired).
2. Place a piece of masking tape on the bottle where you want to drill the hole for the cord. The tape keeps the drill bit from slipping.
3. Put on your gloves and goggles and start drilling. Don’t apply too much pressure or you could break the glass. The drilling takes a long time. I spent about 30 minutes drilling the hole. Be patient!
4. Once your hole is drilled rinse the glass shavings out of your bottle, and let the bottle dry.
5. Carefully feed the strand of Christmas lights into the hole you drilled.
6. TaaDaa!
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is it a diamond drill bit that you used on this project? I love this idea!
No, I don’t think it was a diamond drill bit. I just used a bit specifically labeled for for glass/ceramic.
I bought two of these at a craft show one for myself and one for my sister and her lights have burned out and we can’t figure out how we can get the old strand of lights out of the tiny hole at the back of the bottle. My sister just loves this lamp and would like to be able to replace the lights. What is the best way to get the lights out?
Maybe cut the end of the cord off (when it’s not plugged in of course) and pull the lights out of the top of the bottle?
I am having a hard time finding strands of Christmas lights that are not end to end. Where did you find the lights you used?
My lights are end to end as well. I just let both plugs hang out the back side of the lamp.
Walmart and Joanne’s Fabrics both carry the lights that you are looking for.
Also there are many sites on the internet that carry these lights.
You can get them at the Dollar Store (yay!) – perfect length and price for this project!
You can also cut off the plug on the one end and tape off the wires with electrical tape. If wire for the lights are green you can cover the black electrical tape with floral tape to make it green. If they’re white you can cover the electrical tape with first aid adhestive tape. The lights will work just fine this way.
My husband and I make these as gifts. I leave the labels on- try to find wines that match the persons personality in some way. I also make bottle jewelry to go with them- beads on a wire or different things I wrap around the neck- along with a couple of strands of raffia. I found the 20 bulb and 35 bulb lights at hobby lobby. If you buy them in the Christmas section they have white, red and multi colored. And they are a $1 a box cheaper than in the craft department. I have been buying a few boxes each time I go in there.
What can you put over the label if you want to keep it on?
We have done that for years, with any vase, any glass container, small dot holes around the label name or razor cut around what you want to highlight.
Back in the 60′s (I’m old) Dad and I would convert these massive 48″ Chianti bottle into floor lamps. This required drilling a hole in the base and the stakes were high since these bottle were scarce. We learned that you can speed up the drilling and end up with a little cleaner hole it you use on trick: make a little “volcano crater” out of clay or putty and fill it with 3-in-1 oil to lubricate the process and transmit some of the heat of drilling. This always yielded the best results. The oil will get super hot so be careful and wear them goggles. Wipe the bit clean periodically – the oil keeps it sharp and easy to clean. BTW, I used this process recently on some vintage pottery I needed to drill a drain whole in and it worked just as well.
Sage – I love your comments but am confused. Can you explain the volcano crater? Do I submerse the drilling area of the glass or pottery so that it is under the oil while I drill?
Becky
There could be a market for these??
Reasonably priced they would fly off the shelf, using different color bottles in a set of 3..
How long did it take you to make?
Local bars would be more than happy to get rid of their bottles too..
Nice post:)
Where did you find the drill bit?
Lowes
You’re giving me some of the idea what should I do in this coming Christmas.Thanks
Finding this post has saved me a ton of money this Christmas.
I have cleared out a load of redundant Christmas light sets and sent these out as gifts before Christmas so that people could really benefit from them.
The feedback I received was amazing, they all loved them.
Saved me money and helped clear my loft, thanks very much..
Sam
This design is good when you decorate it part of your house. I think I must be creative this coming Christmas.
I found strands of 20 lights at Big Lots for $1.29. Strands of 35 lights I found at Michael’s for $4.
I do not have the LED lights. Do you ever have an issue with them getting too hot or being a fire hazard? I filled two 1.5L bottles with approx 30-40 lights each and I just want to make sure they won’t overheat. Thanks!
I haven’t had an issue with the lights getting too hot. However, I don’t leave them on for more than an hour or so, and I don’t leave them unattended.
Great project and thanks for posting instructions! I just put one together and would strongly advise spending the extra money and getting LED lights. I used the regular strands and the bottle gets very hot after just an hour or so. I feel if I left it on any longer, the wires would start to melt. Also, the strand I bought was end to end as well but I just cut off the female plug and wrapped it with electrical tape and they worked fine.
This is wonderful! I’m making these for my friends for the holidays this year–we’re college students so we’re all hitting the point where we’re starting to get our own apartments and therefore need things like lights. Thank you so much for this tutorial!
Looking for the Christmas lights or Craft lights with one plug… do they sell them at Hobby Lobby?
For my birthday last August I received a cobalt wine bottle filled with blue Mardi Gras beads and white LED lights. There’s a battery pack on the lights, so I can use the bottle in a window when there’s no outlet close by. My bottle also came with a gorgeous iridescent blue beaded tassle. I’ve been trying to find the right drill bit to make a similar lamp for my sister, so I appreciate the info.
I line my drill hole w electrical tape so the glass doesn’t cut the my strand of lights as I feed them through plus it protects your fingers as well. :)
I could only find 50 light strands. Is that too many
50 lights will probably be too many for a regular sized wine bottle.
What a great idea for patio, deck screen porch lighting this summer. I received several blue bottles over the holiday season and imagine that when combined with green and brown bottles they will look gorgeous!
I used a 1/2″ diamond core bit that I got at the local hardware store. Take modeling clay and make a well where you want to drill the hole and fill with some water. Plunge and drill with short strokes for a clean cut. It only takes about 5 minutes with the core bit. 50 – 75 LED lights work Awesome!! You can also frost the wine bottle or use glass bathroom blocks for some extra WOW!!
Love this!
My friend made one of these for me & she put a floral decal on the bottle, too! So pretty!
They look really cute with little lamp shades on them.
I visited a home recently on a farm and the lady had taken a wine bottle with a cork and just put the lights in the bottle and secured the end of the lights through the top of the bottle and just plugged it in the electrical socket. This way you can change out the lights for different holidays. She had hers as a night light in her bathroom.
Amei a ideia da luminaria.É lindissima
I use a Diamond tile & glass drill bit. Goes through the bottle less then a minute. I stop every and wet the drill bit often. You must keep it wet.
Check out my Light Up Bottles!
http://pinterest.com/wendydesch/light-up-wine-bottles/
Wanted to add.. I never use more then a 20 light strand. They can be purchased at AC Moore for $2.99
They also sell 20 strand LED battery Op for $2.99
I love the battery idea for camping, or on the patio when I don’t want to turn on the bright lights.
Wouldn’t it be a lot easier to just cut the bottom off the bottle and stuff the light strand up into it istead of drilling a hole for 30 minutes?
Cutting the bottoms off is hard..always get jagged bits, i dont even drill a hole,couldnt find the bit, but the lights i have,actually has its plug a loong wire and then the lights, so i stuff the bottle then the wire part comes out through the mouth of the bottle and no one notices once i tape it in place
Save yourself the trouble! I bought mine from http://www.etsy.com/shop/beautifuleverytime
Thanks Amanda! These bottle lights are sexy, a great way to keep a special wine memory, and a perfect addition to t2tcraft.com! There’s many recycle craft ideas there, so check it out.
I think these would be cool for Halloween! I got some of the “spooky” lables that say poison and such off the halloween leftovers at walmart for maybe a buck…i just need to find different shaped bottles now and ill have cool bar lights for my halloween party next year :-)
My wine bottles are clear. Is there anything that I can put in the bottles to hide wires and to make it look pretty?
You can add some garland or tinsel.
Hi Amanda,
I work at Chateau Julien and this is a really cool project, thanks for sharing!! I’d love to try it with one of our 3 liter bottles!!
That would be awesome! :)
I just want to share the success I had with the wine bottle luminaries. I highly recommend this project.
I was going to make these for my grown children and grandchildren for Christmas.
Since I had so many bottles, I decided to buy decorations and have a Christmas party; let each one decorate their own bottle. They all turned out absolutely gorgeous.
The best drill bit was a diamond core drill bit from Lowes about $20. It had the instructions for making the volcano with it. The cheaper bits we ordered didn’t do well and caused some of the bottles to break.
Most of us are using them as night lights. The strand of 20 led lights came from Big Lots. They had white and colored lights available. They have larger strands of led lights, but have a plug on both ends. CVS and the Dollar stores have strands of 20 lights that are very inexpensive ($2)but they are not led, so they get too hot)
We used the Epsom Salts on one of them. We used the frosted glass spray paint on most of them, but left some of them clear.
We decorated them with Christmas ornaments,candle rings,jewelry, bells,tassels, flowers,colored cords, and even some of them added some rub on snowflake decals. We put iridescent garland or shreds inside. The best way we found to do that is to pull the lights out of the bottle neck as you feed it through the hole. Then wrap garland around the lights as you put them back in.
I think that was our best gathering we have had of the ladies in my family. We had so much fun.
One important hint: If you don’t wash the bottles out as soon as the hole is cut, it is almost impossible to get them clean. Putting them in the oven on warm is the best way I found to dry them completely.
I made some for my friends, they absolutely loved them.
Beautiful! I really like this idea. I have to keep this in mind for next christmas season!
Thanks for a great idea and even better tutorial! I linked it on my recycle-upcycle blog (freshtrashplace.blogspot.com)- feel free to stop by and sniff around! :)
Cheers!
I got this awesome bit from Truebite, Inc. Went through the bottle (and it was a thick one) in about 5 mins. Just kept using water, was really slick. I had trouble with the lights though falling down to the bottom, wanted some up in neck. I then painted wine glasses and a board to go over bottle to hold them.