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!
I don’t think it’s necessary to use a drill to get the hole in the bottom of the bottle. You can put a small thick coin inside it and then thump the bottle against your hand a few times. The coin will knock out a small neat hole, albeit not perfectly round.
Don’t listen to this idiot. They obviously want the glass to break in your hand to cause injury.
D, I hope you lose your arm.
We used to use that technique for making disposable pipes to smoke weed back in the good old days.
Kpizzle doesn’t know what your talking about obviously.It takes a bit of practice but I’ve never had one break badly enough to cut me and I’ve shown heaps of people the trick and never heard anyone complain of it happening to them.
What kind of coin is “thick” and small enough to go into a wine bottle? I am intrigued by this. And, Wit & Whistle, did you really stand there holding a running drill against a curved glass surface for 30 minuntes?? How is that even humanly possible?
WTF are you talking about? How the hell do you do that with a “thick coin”??
I completelky agree. I think i lost a few brain cells because of that eronious comment
I’ve put a light string into the bottle with the plug hanging out the top, tied a wire ribbon bow around the bottle neck, and put a Christmas pick or two (like you use for wreaths, etc.) in the top. Then plug it in. Voila!
This is the most creative thing I’ve ever seen! I’m moving in two weeks and so excited for Christmas, I’ve been sitting here thinking about these empty window cupboards in my kitchen, I was so upset not sure what to put there and viola, you’ve answer my question! This is wonderful! Thank you for such a creative idea!
wow, this is amazing! i can’t wait to buy a glass drill bit and try it!
This project is simply brilliant. I discovered your blog through “You Are My Fave”s blog and I’m so grateful I did.
This would make an awesome Christmas gift!
I cannot WAIT to try this!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOO HOO!!! Thank you so very much for sharing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is great I’m making it for my moms Christmas present!
I’m really looking forward to trying this! Thanks for sharing! What a beautiful idea!
I tried :(( broke two wine bottles!!! the glass bit works fine but as the hole starts growing the bit goes offcenter and starts cracking the bottle…
I soooo want this! dang it! nice project btw… hopefully i dont get wasted trying to crack more wine bottles :P
Shailen… don’t give up. As the hole gets bigger, slow down the speed of the bit. And use lots and LOTS of water. Trust me. I make these for my store all the time. So I start off fast, dipping the drill bit in water about every 30 secs to a minute. And like I said, slow the bit down once the head can fit inside the hole….and by that point you’re almost done. Once you get good at it, it’ll only take about 5-10 mins to drill a bottle. Good luck! ~amy
Thanks for sharing! This looks awesome!! I can’t wait to fill my room with dozens of these
Thanks for sharing. I have one w/cord out of the top, but was hoping to find a how-to like this. Getting the drill bit tonight!
I just discovered your creative idea through our website stats, and posted it on our facebook page– glad you had a nice visit last fall! We hope to see you again soon.
What type of wine bottle did you use? I’m curious what color/degree of transparency would work best, thank you!
I used a large wine jug (with glass handle) with excellent results
Paul – I used a brown wine bottle, and it worked great. You could always poke a few lights into the top of your bottle to test the transparency, and to see if you like the amount of light shining through before you start drilling.
I haven’t tried this myself, but i guess you could put some sellotape where the hole should be – the bottle won’t break (hopefully :D)
Very nice, it looks amazing.
well marek (and the others),
you can aswell put sand in the bottle, and press it down,
that the glass viber less ;)
I broke my first wine bottle – patience is not my greatest virtue. Reading above I took Marek Jaworski’s (Feb 13) advice and used sellotape. Also bought a new bit and after about 20 very tedious minutes punched through successfully.
Looks great! Thanks Marek for the tip!
What a great idea. I have never seen a glass drill, I’m assuming such a bit can be found at Home Depot?
Yes, Home Depot will have them. I got mine at Lowes.
What a great idea! My wife loves doing stuff like this so I will send her the link. The only problem is that I will be the one drilling (and breaking) bottles.
I like Ram’s idea of putting sand in the bottle to keep it more stable.
I know what I will be doing this weekend…
Thanks for the idea. My wife saw the post and decided she wants two of them. Lucky for me, we have a few extra bottles just in case.
@jen/jules
Yes I agree with you that, it’s very creative thing. There’s a lot things we are opt to throw directly to our garbage bins without thinking our ballooning problem of garbages. It’s a nice thing that there still people who uses there creativity to lessen the volume our garbage.
I saw some sort of bottles being used to make a decorative thing but not using lights, but instead sand and colorful shells and marbles.
What ever we would prefer, bottom line is, we are trying to make effort on segregating and recycling.
Wow, this really transforms a mundane everyday object into something far more special, thanks for sharing we’ve posted this link on our facebook page.
wow, this is soo cool!
Be careful you don’t leave it on for too long, or if you start to smell melting plastic, UNPLUG IT so it doesn’t catch fire. I tried the “bowl of lights” once and nearly set fire to my bedroom.
Good advice!
I wonder if LED lights would be cooler and less likely to melt?
Your idea is very simple but looks fantastic!
Do I need to purchase a glass drill bit or will another do the job?
JK
You will need a glass/ceramic drill bit.
This project is simply brilliant. I discovered your blog through “You Are My Fave”s blog and I’m so grateful I did.
I haven’t tried this yet but here’s a video that makes this task seem quite simple and apparently can be done in less than a minute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9UOlLSOqUI
Guys, this is REALY DANGEROUS! You have to be carefull with this. The problem is that the small light can burn the plastic wire which could create a FIRE.
And AGAIN BE carefull
You can also do this with mason jars and it looks really cool. My mom used to make these for us as kids, i had a multi-color one in a mason jar, lights up the room in an awesome way
What a marvellous transformation!
It is very difficult to keep the drill bit centered if you try this with a handheld drill. I suggest if you do, make a wooden jig or something to hold the bottle firmly.
The other option is how I do it, I have a bit for my stained glass grinder the makes it very simple to drill a hole almost anywhere in the bottle, it safer too
I was wondering if multiple holes would be good through out the bottle for ventilation so that heat can escape better?
I have been collecting winebottles to make these as centerpeices for my wedding. I plan on frosting the bottles and decopaging our engagement photos on them and putting a single sunflower in the top. My mom has had one of these for years and it is usually always plugged in and has yet to catch fire.
Lea!!! What a great idea!!!!!
Amazing, i love it
Lovely!
Me gusto mucho, muy creativo y llama bastante la atencion. Estoy creando un blog donde publico ideas interesantes que encuentro por la internet e hice link a tu blog. espero que no te moleste :)
Puedes hechar un vistaso si gustas
Gracias Alejandro. Por supuesto puedes hacer link a mi blog. ¡Tu blog se ve muy bien!
Awesome! Keep the blog rolling.. ;)
I have been trying for months to figure out some cool center pieces for my wedding and when i found the link or on a wedding site for DIY projects i immediately showed my fiance and he thought it was so cool, we’ll probably need to recruit a few friends to help us get empty enough wine bottles for the tables ;p
Just stumbled on your blog and it looks great! Love how you made that cool looking lamp!!
Love this super unique reuse of a wine bottle or any bottle for that matter. Super fun! Can’t wait to make my own.
My dad has been doing this for years. He wraps the middle of the bottle in a kitchen towel and loosely clamps the wrapped bottle in a vice grip. This helps to keep the bottle stable while drilling the hole.
We saw these at a craft show a couple years ago. We started making them and selling them as well. Since we’re not big drinkers, our “stash” of bottle comes from our local recycle bins. (Yes, we asked the city for permission.) We get some really creative, unique bottles without the expense (or other effects!) of drinking all the wine (and whiskey, vodka, liqueurs, etc.). Excellent gifts!
Wow. That is amazing. I’m gonna make two of these for our bedside tables. I’ll let you know how I get on. (It’s perfect as I get to drink two bottles of wine as well – may take this into mass production :))
I was so glad to find this post! I’ve seen lots of different kinds of bottles made into lights like this, but the cord always came out of the top and I didn’t want that. I knew someone out there knew how to do it the way you did ….. just took me a while to find you!! lol Thanks!!
You can use LED lights. They are cool and will not start a fire. Save yourself the effort of drilling a hole, just use a bent heavy gauge wire to make a support (or use a wire paper towel roll holder) and put the bottle upside down.
A half-inch hole is quite large and time consuming. You could get away with a smaller hole, if you pass a piece of feeder wire through the hole and out the top of the bottle. Then, attach your string of lights to that and pull only the electrical wire part back through the hole. The rest of the lights can be fed through the far larger neck of the bottle.
wow, really great idea, the bottle looks fantastic… thank you!
I’ve seen these bottles and am enamoured with the concept. I have a few bottles reserved from special occasions that I would love to try this on. I think I’ll try working with some samples though first. Thank you for posting the tutorial!
These are beautiful. I have made some of them and decorated with ribbons and small ornaments for Christmas.