Last month, I brought home 2 boxes of old medicine bottles. Most of them were pretty dirty inside, but I soaked them, and most of the dirt came off, but there were quite a few that had so much grunge in them, no amount of soaking, or even chemicals would remove it. I didn’t have a bottle brush small enough to get in them, so I needed to find some way to cover the grunge in them.
I’ve seen some really amazing altered bottles on Pinterest, but I didn’t want to spend hours trying to make a few old bottles look that fancy, so I decided that spray paint would be the quickest way to salvage them. I picked a few of them, and gave them a coat of white spray paint. They sat that way for several days, because I wasn’t sure what to do next with them, but I remembered I had a packet of paper lace I had in my stash. It was a 50 cent thrift store find from a few years ago, and I’d never done anything with it. I love it when I finally find a use for one of my deals. It justifies why I have such a huge stash of stuff.
I had a can of spray paint that was almost empty, so I figured this little project would use up what was left. I just wrapped the paper lace around the bottle, and taped it in place. I was careful not to spray to close to the bottles, and did sweeping movements with the can, so the paint wouldn’t go underneath the openings in the paper lace. It little still got in, but not enough to bother me.
They look really bright and cheery now, and I think they’ll look especially nice for Christmas and Valentine’s Day, with flowers in them.
I’m really glad that some of the bottles were nasty looking, or it wouldn’t have occurred to me to do this, and I love how they turned out. It was a quick and easy way to salvage them.
I looked online, to see if the paper lace I used is still available, but couldn’t find it. You could use real lace, but it would be a shame to ruin it with spray paint. You can make your own paper lace with this Martha Stewart lace paper punch. I have one, that I used as a stencil for one of my book page canvas wall art projects. This is an affiliate link from Amazon. It’s almost the exact same lace pattern that was on my paper lace.
pretty ingenious – great idea – you are always so inspiring Angie!
Angie, I love these. They would be perfect for Valentines day. I definitely would try this. Also I have a tip, it probably wouldn’t have worked for these bottles, but denture tablets in bud vases or bottles that you can’t get a brush in work great too. We have them on hand because my kids use them for their retainers. You can just break them apart to fit the opening and fill with water and let them soak clean.
These are really pretty. I’m afraid I’m not to good with spray paint. I would get it under the lace. I get in to big a hurry and spray to heavy.
I’m going to shop my hose for old bottles now!
I mean shop my HOUSE. Shop my HOUSE!!
I liked the white bottle with the ecru lace, then I liked the all red bottle with red lace and then the final result… I will take one of each!
So lovely! You did such a fantastic job. I’m currently working on a few bottles myself.
They’re beautiful! I can’t wait to try this. If you don’t want the paint to sneak under the lace while you’re spraying, there’s a product I use when I stencil T-shirts that helps a lot. It’s a spray temporary adhesive. You spray it on and let it dry. Once it’s dry, it’s tacky, and sticks just enough to block the paint while not leaving any residue on the object. It works great. It’s available in the adhesive section of most craft stores.
Another idea for cleaning old bottles etc is toilet bowl cleaner. I use it on a lot of stubborn things….make sure you have ventilation and rubber gloves. I use The Works brand. Love all your great ideas and thank you so much for sharing!
Did you remove the paper lace after the paint was dry??
Linda, yes I did. Just make sure that you don’t go heavy on the spray paint, or the paper might get stuck. I didn’t have any problems though.