DIY wooden vase: simple, yet beautiful

beautiful wooden vase with glass bottles being used as a table centre piece — This DIY vase will help beauty to flourish at every table.

Difficulty

easy
Cost

< 50 £
Duration

< 1 h

It’s really easy to decorate a room with flowers – and with our tutorial, you can do it in the blink of an eye. This wooden vase is rustic yet delicate, and can be moved from room to room with ease.

You need

Tools

Utilities

g-clamps
protractor
meter rule

Materials

5 bottles, approx. 10–20 cm tall
8 wood screws
Wood, e.g. plywood panels (500 x 500 x 10 mm)

L: Length, W: Width, H: Height, D: Diameter

Step 1 4

Saw the wooden frame

image showing someone sawing wood with a Bosch cordless jigsaw — Sawing the base of the vase

You need: Jigsaws, protractor, meter rule, g-clamps, pencil, wooden panel

Before you can spruce up your dining room – or any other room – with the wooden vase, you’ll need to do some measuring, sawing and screwing. The wooden frame should be the same size of the bottles or vases you’re going to use. First, pull out your set square and measure the height and width of the bottles and the diameter of the bottlenecks, and note down all the numbers. You also need to decide how long and wide the wooden frame should be. We recommend that you make the frame long enough for the bottles to be spaced out comfortably, side by side. So if your bottles are 5 cm wide, you should leave 2 cm between each bottle and 3 cm between the bottles and the edge of the frame, which means you’ll need to make the plywood panel 39 cm long. You can then work out the width of the panel in the same way, making sure to leave a larger buffer between the bottles and the edge of the panel, e.g. 4 cm on each side. This would make the panel 13 cm wide. Once you’ve marked the measurements on the panel, it’s time to get sawing! As the frame has both a top and bottom, you’ll need two identical boards. Now you just have to cut the side panels. These should be as wide as the panels you’ve just sawn. To work out the height of the panels, simply check the height of the bottles.

TIPS FOR SAWING:

Set down the wooden panel on a workbench or other stable, raised surface. If you don’t have a way of clamping the board down, ask someone to help! A second pair of hands can then hold the board firmly against your work surface while you saw. The aim is to make sure the board doesn’t slip. Be careful! Make sure your helper’s hands are a safe distance from where you are sawing. If you have a jigsaw with a power swing, you can use it for this project – the board is thin enough that you’ll easily cut through it. Now place the saw at the edge of the panel and gently move it away from you, applying light pressure. You and your helper should wear safety gloves at all times.

Step 2 4

Mark the positions of the bottles

image showing someone using a set square and pencil to mark out cut lines on a piece of wood — To display flowers in your wooden frame, you’ll need to make holes in the top panel.

You need: pencil, protractor, meter rule

Once you’ve sawn all the panels, take one of the long panels and draw where the bottles will go. This panel will become the top of your vase frame. Use the set square to find the centre of the panel and mark the places where you want to saw the holes using the hole-saw attachment. If you want to be more precise, draw the outline of the holes you want to saw using a compass – just make sure that the diameter of the holes matches that of the bottles.

Step 3 4

Put holes in the panels

image of someone using a Bosch cordless drill/driver with a hole saw attachment on a piece of wood — You can either saw or drill the holes for the bottles.

You need: Cordless Drill, 7-piece hole cutter set, g-clamps

Check your notes from earlier and find the diameter of your bottle tops. Then choose a suitable hole-saw attachment and use the cordless drill/driver to saw holes through the centre of the bottle positions you marked earlier. Drill your five holes into the panel using light pressure.

TIPS FOR SAWING HOLES

Hole saws are attachments for cordless drill/drivers that you can use to drill perfectly round holes. A hole saw consists of three components: the body, the centre drill bit and the saw blade. First, insert the centre drill bit. Then attach the saw blade to the body. It’s absolutely crucial to make sure that the saw blade is locked in place. Finally, the hole saw is attached to the chuck of the cordless drill/driver. Now you can get sawing! You could also use a Forstner bit or a jigsaw to saw the holes, but this will leave you with slightly larger holes.

Step 4 4

Screw together the wooden panels and insert the bottles

image showing someone putting glass bottles into the wooden frame of a homemade wooden vase — Once the wooden panels are screwed together, it’s time to add the bottles.

You need: Cordless Drill, wood screws, bottles

Before you can place the bottles in the holes, you have to assemble your wooden vase by screwing together the four wooden panels. To do this, you’ll need a second pair of hands to hold the bottom panel and side pieces together while you drill and screw. Place the screws around 2 cm away from the corners of the panels and use a light pressure to drill them into both panels. Then repeat this step with the other side panel. Finally, screw together the top and side panels. Once your wooden frame is finished, you can place the bottles into the perfectly sawn holes. Then you just need to fill the bottles with water, pick some flowers and twigs and place them in the bottles. If you get bored of having the wooden vase on your dining table, you can simply move it to another location. With the bottles held relatively securely in the frame, you can move the vase quickly and safely.