Making bottles have a beach look to them is an easy way
to add a coastal or nautical feel to your home.
Here are three variations on ways to make beach bottles.
The first one I am going to show is the most basic.
You will need a bottle, some type of stopper, twine and
a small beach-related object to put on top.
The bottles I used were already blue. You could use a clear
bottle if you would like or color your bottle using a method
The beach objects used here were plastic toys found at
the Dollar Tree in the toy section.
the Dollar Tree in the toy section.
They were painted shades of white.
The bottles used had skinny necks so I whittled down some
wine bottle corks to fit. You could also use rolled up paper.
Because I might want to use these bottles again in another season
or for another reason, I just taped the twine on to the neck of
the bottle to get it started. You could glue the twine onto the
bottle if it is going to stay a beach bottle forever.
After winding the twine up the neck of the bottle,
I did use a dot of hot glue to secure it on the lip of the
bottle before moving the twine up on to the cork.
I think it will come off the bottle easily.
Since I don't care about saving the cork, I did use
bottle before moving the twine up on to the cork.
I think it will come off the bottle easily.
Since I don't care about saving the cork, I did use
more hot glue on it to attach the twine.
After you have secured the twine to the bottle and stopper,
put a glob of hot glue on top and hold your beachy object
upright until the glue dries and it can stand on its own.
I left these bottles empty thinking that they would have a similar
clear blue glass look to the faux fishing floats I made last year.
This year the floats and the bouys that I made for the
Summer of '12 Mantle are being used in the dining room.
Behind the table is a display chest that I finally broke
down and painted last summer. This summer it is holding a
collection of faux coral that I made a couple of summers ago.
If you would like to see how this "coral" was made mostly from
items in the floral section of craft stores, click "DIY Coral".
The blue of the beach bottles goes well with the blue/green
in the back of the chest as well as the folding mirrored screen.
In the mirror on the screen, you can also see an urn holding
a pile of DIY Whimsical Starfish.
Beside the urn, is a vignette on the dining room buffet.
While most of the dining room summer decor is whites and
blues, this area has amber colors to go with the lamps that
were made out of garden urns.
The three little ombre glass jars came from the clearance section
at Hobby Lobby (only $2.22 each). They became beach jars
by having a pretty shell hot glued onto the knob on top.
The amber glass fishing floats also came from Hobby Lobby.
The fan shaped "coral" and the middle coral collage are homemade.
This pretty bowl-shaped coral was purchased at Target this
year for $22. I thought that was a good price compared to
the faux Pottery Barn corals.
This art poster was mounted on to a foam core board with
spray adhesive and put into a frame. This way, you don't
have the glare of glass over a print.
OK, now that I have made you look at summer décor in my
dining room, here are the other variations on the beach bottle:
You can add sand and shells to a bottle also and top it off
like the blue bottles. I used purchased sand but you might
have special sand from a trip to the beach. My friend, Ginger,
has a collection of bottled sand from every beach she has been to.
If you are adding sand to a bottle with a narrow neck,
you can make a funnel out of paper to help get the sand in
the bottle without making a big mess.
You will need skinny shells to get in a bottle like this.
If you want to use the bottle for something else later, use tape
to start the twine-attaching/winding process. If you anticipate
folks picking up this type bottle up to inspect the sand and shells,
you might want to glue the top/stopper onto the bottle so
you don't end up with a beach on your floor.
An easier and more kid-friendly beach bottle uses a wider
mouthed bottle or jar. This way you have more options of
types of objects and shells you can add. To be really
kid friendly, you could use a plastic jar instead of glass.
This type beach bottle/jar is fun to twist around and get a new
beach view of different shells that emerge from the sand.
For this reason, it is a good idea to glue the top onto the
bottle or jar so the contents won't come out accidentally.
Depending on how much time and effort you want to spend on
the top of this beach bottle, you can leave off painting the top,
putting twine on the top, or gluing objects on at the end.
Putting twine on the top took more time (and more
burned fingers) than I thought it would.
I could have left the top like this...
...but the little plastic stingray and the starfish reminded me too
much of going to "Stingray City" in the Caiman Islands and
letting the rays swim between my feet to not use them.
I was needing a third item to use with these two kookie
ocean glass objects that I got on super sale this past year
so this beach bottle went on the end table in the family room.
I think it will be a fun conversation piece.
Folks can turn it on its side and watch a new view emerge
with every twist...kind of like a sandy kaleidoscope.
I'm sharing this post at
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I love the blue beach bottles! My guest bedroom has kind of evolved over time into a beach theme, so I need to make one or two of these. Love the table display, also.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post with such a wonderful variety of sand bottles! I also am totally in love with your faux coral!! HELLO!!! Why didn't I see that before??
ReplyDeleteYou have a great beach/shell collection there. Love all your ideas!!
ReplyDeleteYou have got to be the QUEEN bee of beach decor. I'm so inspired now I could almost stay up all night to make some. You have so much absolutely gorgeous beach stuff, I'm envious. I'd be hard put to say which is my favorite, what about you?
ReplyDeleteI have several blue bottles I've collected so they just might be turned into beach decor. Hubs got some 4x4's or 2x4's, whichever to make some bouy's for me.
We used to live in San Diego and I was a beach nut, we lived inland but we were at beach every chance I got. I miss all that beachy stuff. Usually have shells around, things like that but don't get too carried away. So glad you shared all your wonderful beachy goodies. Bye now.
Just gorgeous! Today must be coastal day. I just finished a coastal rit dye vase. I am so excited about how it turned out. These bottles are so so cute!
ReplyDeleteI just love your wonderful beachy bottles and such a good tut to teach how to do it...I am so drawn to all the outdoor beachy things on your post, the shells and and all the stunning aqua colors...ahhhh the beach...
ReplyDeleteHow fun, I love this idea, and thanks for the tutorial and all of the examples. Yours are gorgeous. Thanks also for joining Inspire Me. Hugs, Marty
ReplyDeleteLove your nautical bottles and that faux coral is amazing. It looks beautiful in your cabinet.
ReplyDeleteThese are so cute! I love all your fabulous sea decor. Those faux corals
ReplyDeletein the cabinet are amazing, too.
I love them!
Hugs,
Patti