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DIY chandelier with wine bottles
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Wine Bottle Chandelier

Learn how to make a DIY chandelier using wine bottles! This is such a cool idea that goes with a wide variety of decor styles.
Prep Time1 hour
Active Time6 hours
Dry Time12 hours
Total Time19 hours
Yield: 1 chandelier
Cost: $40

Equipment

Materials

Instructions

  • Start by mixing Mod Podge with food coloring until you have the color palette of your choice.
  • Squeeze a generous amount of the Mod Podge mixture into the cut end of your bottle.
    Pouring colored Mod Podge into the cut end of a bottle
  • Twirl bottle to disperse color all over the inside of the bottle. Repeat with the remaining bottles and place so the excess can drip out. Let them dry overnight.
    Swirling the colored Mod Podge around in the wine bottle
  • Wire each bottle with a lighting kit according to package instructions. The one I used had an in-line switch between the plug and the socket base. I didn’t have a need for the switch or the plug since I was going to be direct wiring it to an existing switched circuit.
    Wiring kit on a table
  • I cut the wire using wire cutters at the socket side of the switch. I left about two feet of wire to the socket base, but you should test and see what distance looks best in your application.
    Cutting the cord with wire cutters
  • Run the cut end up through bottle and out the neck of each of the six colored bottle shades. The sockets will fit snuggly up in the taper of the neck of the shade.
    Run the cut end up through bottle and out the neck of each of the six colored bottle shades
  • Bare the ends of each of the wires using your wire cutters to peel away the plastic coating (there will be 12 wires, hot and a neutral for each lamp or 18 if the kit is wired for a ground).
    Exposed wire with plastic coating
  • With the wall switch OFF (throw the service breaker for extra safety) take down the old ceiling light and find the white (neutral), black (hot), and green (ground) wires.
    Pull them down out of the box and make sure you have enough room to go back with the new wire bundle you're going to create.
  • Combine all the neutral wires from the lamp kits together into one pigtail. DO the same for the hot and the ground if present. Use some electrical tape to help hold them all together while you get ready to connect them to the junction box.
    Combine all the neutral wires from the lamp kits together into one pigtail
  • Using an appropriately sized wire nut, connect the white pigtail of the lamp kit to the white (neutral) wire from the ceiling. DO the same with the Black (hot) and ground (green, if present).
  • Carefully push the wires up into the junction box and allow the weight of the lamps to be carried by the bundled lamp cords over the junction box support bar.
  • Slide the fixture cover you used from the old light up into place to cover everything. Flip the breaker and the switch on. Put bulbs in the lamps.

Video

Notes

Learn how to cut wine bottles here.
Step 2: If you are having a hard time getting it to flow, you can tap the bottle against your wrist.
Step 3: I placed my bottles on my kitchen table, on a non stick craft sheet, with the ceiling fan on. Place them with the mouth down so they dry faster. This will be an overnight process.
Step 4: For this wine bottle chandelier project I used a standard E27 base pendant light kit available at almost any Wal-Mart or home improvement store.
Step 7: I chose a room that already had a simple ceiling fixture on a wall switch. This made it easy to take down and I just used the existing junction box and cover plate from the old light to mount my wine bottle chandelier.