Ultra Cool Wine Bottle Light Fixtures

Guest post by Lynn.  I have two things to envy about Lynn (well, two that I'm mentioning here):  One, she's a better writer than I am.  By far.  And Two, she has a very handy husband.  I'm the handy one in my house, which really only means I'm the one willing to give it a shot and figure it out, not that I have any actual skill.  So, without further ado, heeeeere's Lynn!

Pinterest is a thing now. I was fairly late to the party, many of my friends found it ages ago. But it has been a spark for some ideas lately, and I love sparks.

 One spark led to several projects inside and outside our home. I saw this idea posted a few times on Pinterest, and followed the photos to blogs, but sadly, there were no instructions, so I did my own googling, and researched how to make these lights on my own.

 http://pinterest.com/pin/217158013251941620/

http://pinterest.com/pin/217158013251941468/

The hubby took over the grunt work, as is his habit, and experimented with several techniques, before landing on what works best for him. There are several tutorials on how to go about cutting wine bottles, none of which worked exactly as the instructions spelled out. What we settled on was a method which used the best of several tutorials. I won’t go into all the details, if you really want to pursue the project, you can shoot me a message, or do your own googling and experimentation.

 Sorry I didn’t take any pictures of the glass cutting process; much of it went on after I’d gone to bed, because hubby didn’t care for my kibitzing. J The gist of it is as follows:

• Obtain a good supply of wine bottles, the break rate tends to be fairly high, especially at the beginning (save your favorites for later, when you’ve gotten the hang of it. Clean them and remove the labels – or leave them on for a more rustic, bar-like look.
• Purchase a glass cutting implement. Hubby attached ours to a wooden block and a vise, to stabilize the bottle while scoring it with the glass cutter. You’ll need to score the entire circumference. Once or twice around with the cutter should be sufficient.
• After scoring, dip the bottle into boiling water for 15-30 seconds. Then dip it immediately into an ice water bath. You should be wearing protective goggles for this, just in case.
• The bottle should go back and forth between boiling water and ice water until you hear a distinctive popping sound. At this point, the portion of the bottle below the score should have popped off the bottle.
• If you’ve gotten a clean cut, the next step is to buff the edge to a smooth surface with a dremel or sandpaper. Hubby used several grades of dremel bits to get the finish we wanted.

Okay, so once you’ve collected enough cut bottles, you’ll need to purchase the pendant lights. We found them at World Market for just under $10 each while they were on sale, and after coupon. http://www.worldmarket.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11652058 They also carry white and silver. We prefer the look of black cords and housing/mount.

We decided to play around with height and placement, so hubby used painter’s tape to mask off the placement of the countertop, and then measured out where we thought the lights would look good. We taped rope up, and moved it around a few times, until we were happy with how the placement looked both from the family room and both sides of the kitchen.

This was an integral part of the planning… where we had originally planned to hang the lights looked simply awful once we taped up the rope to look at it. Had we hung them, there would have been much regret, and the added expense of repairing drywall and moving the lights.

 After living with the taped up ropes for a few days, we then hung eyehooks, and tied the ropes up, hanging several bottles. This helped us figure out the appropriate height for each bottle, and let us play around with shapes and colors, work out whether we preferred symmetry to randomness. Again, proper planning allowed us to avoid a costly mistake. Once the pendant cord is cut, there is no adding it back… at least not cheaply.

We got the arrangement where we were happy with it, and then the installation of the pendant lights began. Hubby has these wired into the existing can light he recently installed above the sink, but eventually, they will be on a separate switch, because we want to be able to dim these even when that light is on full blast.

The placement of the lights also takes into account our eventual plan to replace the heinous white laminate countertops with granite, and the bar counter will be significantly wider then, allowing for barstools along this expanse of counter.

Again, I’m not sure if this is half-assed, because hubby actually used to work for interior decorators, as a contractor and carpenter… but it was super cheap, and a lot of fun. The result is something we know no one else we know has, but several have expressed interest in copying. Oh, and the other project I alluded to is this vegetable garden edging. We got so many bottles from a neighborhood Italian restaurant that we decided to put our recycling to good use. Our home decorating doesn’t have to end at the front and back door, you know!

Oh, and we’re about to get our Etsy shop back up and running, and will have some of these lights listed, for anyone who doesn’t have the time, patience, or inclination to undertake this project, but wants to have it in their home. http://www.etsy.com/shop/PinkPolkaDotPoodle/sold

Thank you Lynn, for saving this Half Assed blogger!