How to Decorate Outside With Bottles

Paint bottles decoratively to use outside on porches as flower vases.

There are thousands of creative ways you can decorate outdoors with bottles. Whatever the occasion, there's a bottle to fit it. Save all of the bottles you enjoy collecting in a safe place and keep them clean. Use glass paint if you want to create art on your bottles. If you prefer a more simple look and just want to write a name on the bottle, a permanent marker will do the trick. Bottles add flair to everything from porches and gardens to outdoor weddings.

Things You'll Need

• Bottles
• Paint
• Permanent markers
• Items with special meanings
• Fresh-cut flowers
• Fishing line
• Bambo, driftwood or wooden stick

Instructions

1. 

   Bottles can hold sand, feathers, seashells and other decorative embellishments.

   Fill bottles with items you enjoy, if you intend to decorate an area on a porch that includes a theme, such as birdhouses. Bottles can easily be worked into any decorative outdoor theme by simply adding items that fit that theme, such as buttons for a sewing theme or marbles for an old-fashioned toy theme. Work in the colors that flow as well and use items that mean something special to you. For example, if you have sand that your grandchildren brought from Florida, that's an item to place in a bottle.

2. 

   Bottles can transform into vases for outdoor table centerpieces.

   Fill clean bottles with water and fresh-cut flowers to use as outdoor table centerpieces. Fit the bottle to the occasion or setting, such as an outdoor table for a restaurant or a table setting for a wedding decoration.

3. 

   Root beer bottles are strong and make effective wind chimes.

   Tie fishing line around the necks of some clean root beer bottles. Tying them together to a bamboo stick, a piece of driftwood or a stick you find outdoors is all you need. With root beer bottles, the less fancy the better. Hang this set of homemade wind chimes in a tree and let nature do its thing. When it rains, water will fill the bottles with different depths of water, adding new sounds to the "chimes." Experiment with different sizes and shapes of bottles for different wind chime sound effects. Little bottles obviously make the lighter, more tinkling sound effects than the larger bottles.

References

• Fun in the Making: Flower Centerpiece: Milk Bottle Vases in Weathered Canning Jar Lifter
• Old Beer Bottle: My Old Bottles: The Beauty and Ease of Homemade Wind Chimes