DIY Upcycling Wine Bottles & Coffee Jars – Topps Tiles Mosaic Challenge

Summer is finally here and it only means one thing (to me anyway) – barbeques! I am a true carnivore and barbeque is my absolute favourite food. Hand in hand with outdoor cooking goes outdoor dining and when I was invited to take part in the Topps Tiles Mosaic Challenge I thought it was the perfect opportunity to liven up my al fresco dining experience with some mediteranean inspired tableware. Mosaic tiles make me think of swimming pools and holidays so for me, they’re a perfect fit for an outdoor project.

As I’ve talked about before, I find it hard to throw things like empty jars and bottles away because I know that,  at some point, I’ll find a use for them and this is just another way of upcycling wine bottles and jars into useful homewares. Topps Tiles sent me a kit with three lots of lovely mosaic tiles and some tile glue to get started on my own creation! As ombre is still a pretty huge trend this summer and the tiles come in a multitude of shades I decided to incorporate this look into my project.

1. Layout the tiles around the base of the bottle or jar to make sure they fit.

2. Place a blob of glue on the underside of the tile and spread out with the attachment on the nozzle.

3. Position your tile on the glass. Repeat for one full row. After the first row I left the tiles overnight to dry so that the weight from subsequent rows wouldn’t dislodge it or weaken the glue.

4. For the wine bottle I built up 2 rows of each colour finishing just under the shoulders of the bottle moving from the darkest blue finishing with white. I lined the edges of the tiles up to create straight lines up the bottle. For the jar I used one row of each colour as I wanted to leave more of the glass visible. This time I alternated the positioning of the tiles on each row.

The wine bottle makes a great vase or you could use it to serve water during a meal, the jar can be used for a multitude of sins including holding cutlery or as a tealight or candle holder, the effect of the flame shining through the tiles is quite romantic! Barbeques just got a little more stylish!