Decorative touches give old bottles new life

Dear Sandi: I have been saving old bottles in interesting shapes for some time now, and I would love some ideas on something decorative that I could do with them. —Jennifer K. R., Salem

Hi Jennifer: Old bottles can be great fun, and yes, we have done many different things to them.

You may be familiar with our beach bottles. Although we sell these already decorated, it would be very easy to create similar ones of your own using whatever you may have around your house or yard.

Ours are decorated with natural fiber and, of course, seashells. You could work with shells alone, but by adding some type of natural fiber, the bottles take on a more interesting and varied appearance.

Raffia and abaca fiber work especially well, but any type of natural twines or cording could be used.

Start with some idea of a design in mind, then wrap between a third to two-thirds of the bottle with your material. You can work with a glue gun, but often hot glue will pop as it ages, so you may want to use one of the super glues now available. Another advantage to working with these is that you only need to use a very small amount, limiting the likelihood of having your glue visible on or through the clear bottle.

After gluing your wrap down, add organic material. This might be seashells, leaves or even dried flowers that you have gathered and pressed at an earlier time. If you have a number of bottles with similar shapes (such as liquor bottles), explore a number of similar treatments on a few pieces, varying the placement of the different materials yet keeping the theme going. This can look very effective when the finished bottles are displayed in a grouping.

Whether you're looking for handmade paper, furniture, fabric or accessories, you will find it at loose ends. If it is unusual, organic and fabulous, then loose ends is the place. Showroom hours are 8 am to 5 pm weekdays and the first Saturday of each month 10 am - 3pm at 2065 Madrona Ave. SE, Salem, or visit us online at www.looseends.com Questions? Give us a call at (503) 390-2348.

You also could try covering the bottles with fabric or paper. This is a great way to tie in a decorating motif. Look for a material that picks up your colors or a pattern repeated in your room. This could come from a wallpaper, a scrap of fabric, etc. You also could use a heavier-weight handmade paper in a neutral color and apply your own artwork and/or coloration to the surface after the paper has been applied and allowed to dry.

The above technique is best executed using a white glue and water mix or a premixed, water-based wallpaper paste.

If you are working with a paper that has strong fibers in it and will hold its integrity when wet (only way to know this is to try dipping it in the glue/water mix and seeing what happens), then the glue/water technique can give you some very interesting effects as the paper layers and “pulps” as you apply it to the surface.

Sandi Reinke is an author, frequent television guest and lead designer for loose ends (www.loosends.com), a Salem-based interior décor, garden, and casual lifestyle company. To ask Reinke a decorating question, e-mail info@looseends.com or mail her at the showroom address, 2065 Madrona Ave. SE, Salem, OR 97302. Phone: 503-390-2348.

If you are working with the wallpaper paste, it is best to apply the paste to the surface of the bottle and also to the backside of the paper. With both adhesives, you will want to have your paper already torn, cut, etc., to the sizes you are going to be working with before starting with any of the paste or glue. Nothing is more frustrating than getting going on the project, then finding that you didn’t prepare enough pieces of paper and you are all sticky.

Another thing that we have done with bottles is to work with liquid laminate for our adhesive and to use extremely thin and transparent handmade paper. We have used our Spun Silk. Though it is considered paper, it actually is an all silk textile with the consistency of a butterfly wing. It is wafer thin and tears easily, which makes it ideal for this application. The laminate is applied to the surface of the bottle, and the torn (not cut) pieces of the paper are worked into the laminate. The paper immediately begins to break down into a pulp-like state, which can be worked with your fingers into varying thickness on the bottle’s surface.

The final look of this can be interesting, especially if you place it in a spot where the sunlight can come through. These particular papers have long, colored silk fibers running through the sheets, and these remain intact when the rest of the material begins to break down.

You also can decorate the inside by partially filling them with tiny shells, polished pebbles, colored waters, etc. And, of course, if you really have some bottles with interesting shapes, you can just leave them as is and line them up in a window, allowing the natural light to play through them. September 2, 2005