Home & Garden: A New Life for Empty Summer Bottles

Hot summer days and nights calls for two things that are particularly wonderful in July and August: First, beautiful farm stand flowers. Second, eats that go with the heat, such as lemonade, chilled coffee, salsa and chips.

And when the bottles holding those eats are empty, give them a new kind of recycling duty by transforming them — for free — into clever, pretty vases for the flowers. 

The side benefits: They make a great conversation piece, and a perfect hostess gift.

The three vases seen here come from those summer specialties. The hourglass vase held Pace Picante Sauce. The tall vase was Trader Joe's Sparkling Pink Lemonade. The short, slim bottle was Starbucks Frappuccino.

Here's how to make yours:

First. Choose bottles with interesting shapes. Then soak off the label. You can enjoy the new "vases" clear, displaying the beauty of fresh water.

Second. For a treat, give the vases graphic punch. I used remnants of wrapping paper from Papyrus, keeping them in place with a few small pieces of clear tape. Play with how much of the bottle to cover. I prefer less coverage, so that the clear areas become part of the design, and so that you can still see that it's a bottle.

Third. Add detail. I like to add scraps of paper to the bottles, particularly around the necks.  Ribbon brings pizzazz: Try cutting thin threads for a sportier effect.

Fourth. Choose the right flowers. Remember: Proportion, proportion, proportion. Tall flowers that are top-heavy need taller vases that have body to them. A small, slim bottle calls for delicate flowers arranged with side-to-side roundness for balance. An hourglass bottle is the perfect home for large, round flowers cut to sit low and full.

Fifth. Use an odd number of vases: one, three or more, to make a design statement.

Above all. Have fun! I store some bottles with the paper on them for easy future use. Others, I change the paper often (now that I have a stash of wrapping paper scraps for this use.)  Try bottles that have decorative details such as those for certain pickles and olive oils.

And when it comes to summer entertaining — whether it's just family or having friends over — having these "vases" of farm stand flowers says everything about casual beauty and fun in the summer.

Katherine Ann Samon is the author of four books, including Dates From Hell and Ranch House Style. Her column, "Home & Garden," about providing you a beautiful life at home, will appear twice a month on Larchmont-Mamaroneck Patch. To learn more, visit Samon's Web site www.katherineannsamon.com