Design & DIY

4 ways to spice up your decor with painted bottles

Paint your way forward

Painting is the quickest and easiest way to create big impact with minimal effort, which is why it’s usually the first thing new home owners will address. A fresh coat of paint usually does the trick!

For decor, it’s also a great way to work a colour scheme into the mix, and it allows you to really customize your event without worrying about sourcing a specific piece. This week on Dining INNvasion, my new show on Cottage Life, I glammed up an otherwise pretty rustic room at Fern Resort with some beautiful gold bottles, gold and white polka dots, and DIY white crepe-paper flowers.

The bottles were half wine bottles (thank you, Victor!) and some sourced vintage bottles.

Vintage bottles

The wine bottles first had to soak in very hot water to get the labels off—these wine bottle labels had surprisingly strong glue. I soaked them, peeled off the labels, and finally used Goo-Gone to get rid of all remaining residue.

You can get gold, copper, or silver spray paint at Home Depot and Canadian Tire, but after reading a ton of reviews, I used Krylon spray paint in Brilliant Gold. They only needed one coat of spray paint, and they dried in a few hours. Brilliant indeed!

Painting old bottles

I love how the candlelight hits these gold bottles, and I love the juxtaposition of the white paper flowers against such a glam look. Most importantly, there was enough room on the table for my co-host Victor’s feast! You don’t want to overdo it when it comes to gold—a little can go a long way!

If you’d like to use this technique in your own DIY projects, here are some other great ways you can paint bottles for an amazing DIY effect.

1) With anything other than metallic, pour paint inside the bottles to keep the outside glossy, and paint the outside for a matte effect.

Paint inside bottles

2) Tape your bottles in various patterns, spray paint, let them dry, and remove the tape for fantastic patterns!

Bottle paint patterns

3) Keep adding bits of white to your paint colour in between bottles to achieve a chic ombre effect.

Painted bottles

4) Go all white! Paint your bottles all white and use coloured flowers for a traditional and clean look.

All white bottles

Rebecca Wise is the founder of Event Wise, and she’s spent the last decade scouting fabulous locations for her clients and planning sensational parties worldwide. Rebecca synthesizes concepts into one exciting and cohesive design, creating extraordinary events time after time. She is the host of Dining INNvasion on the Cottage Live channel.

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