The aesthetic I will be exploring for my upcycle project is the one of modern home décor and plants. Modern home décor very frequently includes plants and greenery that bring a fresh natural aura to rooms. Many people also keep small herb gardens in or near their kitchens. One common thread in most of modern home decor, especially natural decor, is simplicity. Most homeowners with no more than an average skill for botany, value plants that look good and are low maintenance. Some even spend extra money on planters and watering systems that reduce the amount of work they must put in to maintaining their in-home gardens.
However, we need not spend the extra money to make our in-home garden dreams reality. We are surrounded by common up-cyclable materials that can be easily repurposed to make simple and beautifully low maintenance planters. Namely, wine bottles. Wine bottles are too often discarded and sent away to be inefficiently recycled when their second lives are waiting for them right in your kitchen. The look of repurposed wine bottles can in many ways be classy and bring a modern, eco-friendly tone to your home decor.
I will be repurposing three used wine bottles into self-watering planters in which I will plant various herbs for cooking. I will also be repurposing one wine bottle into a long boat type planter for succulents. Wine bottles present the unique opportunity to create easy to use self watering planters that also remain true to the simple modern aesthetic of indoor plant decor. The planters use strings that hang down into a reservoir to draw water upwards and saturate the plant’s root system. They are extremely easy to make and require minimal additional materials.
I am certainly far from a good cook, and an unfortunate majority of the plants I’ve tried to grow in my lifetime haven’t lasted too long. I can appreciate though, the simple natural aesthetic that keeping plants in the home brings. Growing up my parents kept a flourishing indoor herb garden which they employed to spice up their cooking year-round. My hope is that creating a low maintenance indoor garden of my own and keeping fresh herbs, will encourage me to explore more recipes and to expand my repertoire. Simple planters and succulents also make great DIY gifts that are low maintenance once gifted.
The aesthetic of modern home décor and plants lends itself very well to DIY upcycling projects. Regardless of one’s botanical talent, easy to maintain plants in the home can truly spruce up a space and make great gifts for friends and loved ones. Stay tuned to watch the progress of my planters as my wine bottles become reborn over the next few weeks.
IMAGES IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
- https://www.sheridan.com.au/sheridan-life/styling-plants-in-the-home-with-bec-burnard.html
- https://elements.envato.com/wine-bottles-mockups-vol-1-Z5JDMB
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=UvxAGWoOHl8
- https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/gardening/a20706498/how-to-grow-succulents/
- https://joybird.com/blog/in-home-greenery/
2 Comments. Leave new
I think the combination of the natural home décor aesthetic with upcycling is a stroke of genius. I’m excited to see the end result of this project and how you managed to do it. Will you do anything to the design and aesthetic of the cut out bottle vases to make it fit more into the aesthetic and look more like a décor piece or will you keep it as is?
This was a fun post! It’s cool that you’re making something that you’ll be able to use when the project is over. I’m very curious to see how you end up cutting the tops of the wine bottles off to make your self-watering vases – it seems like it would be difficult to get a clean cut all the way around. Does your living space currently have a modern aesthetic? How will these upcycled planters tie into your current decorating scheme? It’ll be fun to see your final project!