Decorative Glass Bottles

Use decorative glass bottles as a sun catching room display

There's something appealing and cheerful in sunlight viewed through colored glass. If you're looking for an inexpensive way to give your kitchen or bathroom an eye catching lift, try using decorative glass bottles just as you would suncatchers. There are several design themes you might use. The only limitations are in your imagination, so the sky's the limit. Here are a few ideas to spark your own creativity.

If you'd like a coordinated look, with the bottles all of about the same size, you'll find all you need on the net. Remember the apothecary bottles of old? Back in the days of the apothecary shops, herbs were stored in amber and brown shades of glass bottles, to protect the herbs from losing their potency through light. You can buy such decorative glass bottles today. Online herb and glass vendors usually stock these. If you find the amber and brown theme fits into your color scheme, or if you just enjoy the effects of light through these colors, you're set.

However, you can also find these decorative glass bottles in every color of the rainbow. A mix of colors on a windowsill, or anywhere that light will strike them, creates an enchanting prism-like effect, which works as well in a kitchen as a bathroom.

You can also create stunning effects with a collection of bottles of different heights and shapes. This asymmetrical display looks great when you stagger the sizes, one tall and thin next to a shorter vase shape and so on. You can find a diverse selection at glass bottle manufacturer's websites, as well as soap, cosmetic and candle vendors' sites. Offline, antique shops, flea markets, garage sales and herb shops are good places to find decorative glass bottles. When using a variety of sizes and shapes, a diversity of colors makes the most interesting display.

You needn't confine yourself to a single sill or shelf. If you've got a large window, three or four glass shelves, filled with colored glass bottles, creates a cheerful mood, both in daylight and at night.

Once you start collecting decorative glass bottles, you'll always spot yet another candidate for your collection at every garage sale. With an abundant collection, you can create a virtual curtain of glass. This works in certain bathroom situations, when shelves are closely placed and your bottles are grouped in colors. For example, you can begin with yellows, ambers and browns. Place taller bottles at the rear and situate each bottle in order of descending height, with the smallest at the front. Set them close together. When one color group has been filled in, move on to the next group of green shades. When arranged according to the color wheel, you end up with a dramatic rainbow effect and a privacy screen of colored glass.

Decorative glass bottles offer an imaginative way to decorate and spice up a drab room. You also have a new hobby!