DIY Wine Bottle Candle Holders

Okay, so you probably don’t really need a step by step tutorial to work out how to spray paint bottles, but I thought the idea was pretty cool and I’m excited to share it with you. I love having accents of gold tinted trinkets dotted around my apartment – the colour gives it a warm, antique shop kind of vibe. I also love candles for their ambience so I think you can never have too many. This is a really easy and cheap way to fill your space with candle light and pretty things. If you’re short on materials, just invite your friends over and ask them to byob. I have curated this eclectic bottle collection after having friends round for Halloween drinks last year!

You will need:
Glass wine bottles or beer bottles (I used both)
White spirit
Gold spray paint
Masking tape
Tapered candles

Step 1: Clean up your bottles to make sure there’s no liquid inside and remove any stubborn sticky labels with white spirit

Step 2: Spray paint them! Try an all over coat or fix masking tape around the middle (which you remove when the paint is dry) for a gold dipped effect. I did 3 light coats on each bottle to stop the paint from streaking.

If you’re new to spray painting, make sure you cover all the nearby surfaces or paint outside. This stuff gets everywhere! It’s also a good idea to keep a window open because the fumes are pretty strong.

Step 3: For small bottle openings, use a knife to chisel the bottom of the candle away into a point. This way you can wedge the candle into the bottle. If the bottle opening is too wide, drip candle wax around the edge to make it narrower.

I love the way candle holders look when they’re covered in layers of dripped wax but it’s going to take me a long way to get there. Just as with everything in my flat, I can keep adding to it and eventually it’ll look exactly as I imagined. My friend recently remarked that something’s changed every time he comes over and that’s the way I like it. There’s something nice and organic about decorating your home with things you made or bought because you loved or collected over years of exploring, rather than picked up in one go just to fill the space. It’s all about the process. I’m glad that with just a splash of paint these wine bottles can be an addition to my ever growing collection of trinkets!