Personal Wine Blog

DIY: Wine Bottle Chandelier | Glass Bottle Chandelier

Written by Personal Wine | December 27, 2015



The wonderful thing about wine is that no two bottles are exactly the same. You’ll always have your favorite wines but each glass has its own unique experience meant to be savored and cherished.

Not surprisingly, wine bottle crafts are like glasses of wine in the sense that no two are exactly the same. One popular craft is a DIY lamp made of wine bottles. With minimal financial investment and a few hours of handywork, your new DIY wine bottle chandelier will become the perfect centerpiece in your home.

7 Steps to Make a Chandelier from Old Wine Bottles:

  1. Gather your tools and materials
  2. Score and cut your wine bottles
  3. Add the necessary electrical wiring
  4. Shape your wooden base
  5. Set your wires in place
  6. Shape the ceiling canopy
  7. Connect the plank and canopy piece
  8. Light up the room!

Step 1: Gather Your Tools and Materials

First, the fun part, you’ll need empty wine bottles! Wine bottles come in all shapes, sized, and colors so make sure to choose your best looking wine bottles to hang. 

Then, you’ll also need:

  • Decorative chain
  • Wood planks
  • Wood stain
  • Hook eye screws
  • Wingnuts
  • Screws designed to be used with wood
  • Strong adhesive silicone
  • Caulk gun
  • Plastic square junction box

For tools, you’ll need:

    • Utility knife
    • Screwdriver
    • Wire cutters
    • Drill with 1” paddle bit
    • Circular or miter saw
    • Bolt cutters
    • Glass cutting tool or standard drill bit

Step 2: Score and Cut Your Wine Bottles

When preparing to score your wine bottles, we suggest first laying some tape or string to act as your guide. Then, score the bottle with your glass cutting tool or by simply using a standard drill bit.

To make the cut, alternate the scored line of the bottle between the heat of a candle and an ice cube to make a clean break.

Step 3: Adding The Necessary Electrical Wiring

Next, measure the amount of lamp wire you’ll want for each bottle in your chandelier and attach that to the screws inside each lamp socket using a screwdriver.

Step 4: Shape Your Wooden Base

Acting as the base of your DIY wine bottle chandelier, cut a wood plank to the size and shape you desire and then apply stain as needed. Then, drill holes using your 1” padded drill bit ensuring that there is enough space for the neck of each wine bottle to fit through.

Test the fit of your bottles to ensure that they fit firmly.

Step 5: Set Your Wires In Place

Drill your plastic square junction box to the top of your plank where all the wires from the bottles will connect together.

 


Step 6: Shape The Ceiling Canopy

Measure, cut, and stain another plank of wood to serve as the ceiling canopy. Next, drill holes both the wires that will pass through the canopy and for the screws that will be used to secure the canopy piece to the ceiling. Finally, add hooks to the canopy piece once it’s secured.

Step 7: Connect the Plank and Canopy Piece

Now you're ready to suspend the plank from the canopy piece with your decorative chain. Apply your adhesive silicone with a caulk gun to each 1” wine bottle hole and then insert each bottle snuggly into the plank. Once the silicone dries, your bottles will stay firmly in place.

With the bottles secured, feed the wiring with the attached light bulb sockets up through the wine bottles and then up through the holes in the canopy and into the junction box on top.

Step 8: Light up the Room!

It is absolutely necessary that you first turn off the power to your ceiling fixture using the circuit breaker before testing your DIY wine bottle chandelier. Once you know the wiring is working properly, then make sure that your canopy fixture is securely in place. It is now safe to turn the circuit breaker back on. Finally, flip the light switch to light up any occasion!