How to Display Colored Bottles

Wine bottles are available in a variety of colors.

Colored bottles protect liquid from excess light that can cause oxidation. Once you empty colored bottles you can display them in sunny areas to create a stained-glass effect. You can also fill them with colorful decorative objects and place them around your home. Colored bottles can be displayed in your yard by putting them on tree branches and creating a bottle tree. Egyptians and Mesopotamians started making glass bottles around 1600 B.C.; they used them to trap genies and "bottle imps" at night.

Things You'll Need

• Water
• Tall, thin colored bottles
• Short, wide colored bottles
• Light-colored sand
• Small shells
• Corks
• Scissors
• Ribbon

Instructions

1. Display your colored bottles on a window sill in a sunny room. Rinse out the bottles and remove any corks. Place the tall, thin bottles in the center of a window sill. Put an equal number of short, wide bottles on each side of the thin bottles. Coordinate the colored bottles with the other colors in the room to create a unified decorating concept.

2. Pour one inch of sand into each of your colored bottles. Drop small shells through the openings of the bottles until the bottles are full. Place corks in the bottles. Cut lengths of ribbon with the scissors to fit around the mouth of each bottle. Wrap a length of ribbon around each of the bottles and knot the ribbon. Put the bottles on a fireplace mantel or shelf to create a display of beach-themed colored bottles.

3. Create a bottle tree out of a tree that grows in a sunny area. Push a thin, strong branch through the opening of one of your colored bottles. Push the branch into the bottle until it touches the bottom, so the bottle does not fall off and create litter. Place bottles around the lower branches of the tree evenly. Alternate bottles of different colors to create a more colorful bottle tree. Decorate with red and green bottles to create a Christmas-themed bottle tree.

Tips & Warnings

• Rinse out the colored bottles if they get dusty.

• Handle colored glass bottles carefully or they may break.

• Do not attempt to put bottles on high branches or you may fall.

• Do not place several bottles on one branch or they could weigh down and damage the branch.

• Do not place bottles on branches that point toward the ground. The bottles could fall off and break or create litter.

References

• E.C. Kraus: An Overview of Wine Bottling
• Felder Rushing: Bottle Tree History; Felder Rushing