I Love the look of things unusual, taking things and making them into something that makes you go hum.
My husband had seen borders for flower beds made of bottles on a military base that had housed prisoners during world war two. This sounded like a great idea. The problem was hardly anything comes in interesting bottles now.
We had some brick, a few glass blocks and decided to use them as a sidewalk to our pool and to bury beer bottles leaving just the tops exposed like large glass stones. We went to the local little bar and they let us get bottles out of the dumpster while they were closed on Sunday after a busy Saturday night (make sure to wear gloves when doing this).
1. Dig out work area;If you are putting this next to an edge of an existing side walk or edge like we did, dig down to the depth of the items you will be adding so that they will lay flush with the existing edge, and remove dirt
2. Set your center piece; We set the bricks and glass blocks like we wanted them. This took some time and patience to decide how we wanted this to look. Also perfection was not my goal (
obviously right). I love a mixed look with character and boy does this have character. Not loved by someone with OCD I am sure.
3. Fill in around center piece; Next we added the dirt back in loosely around the bricks and glass blocks going to the edge of the width that I wanted the total project to cover, only
filling it about half up. The rest will be filled with concrete after the bottles are installed.
4. Think about design:At this point really think about how you want your design to look. I choose to make a more straight line look just because it seemed easier, (not so much and not so straight but oh well) but you can do letters, flowers or other designs if you would rather.
5.
It is VERY important to wear gloves for this next part! My husband got a really nasty cut that required an emergency room visit when a bottle broke and he tried pulling it out without his gloves on.
6. WET the dirt; I found it easier to work with my dirt with it wet, so I used the hose and wet the dirt really well.
I Felt like a little kid playing in the mud, so you might want to wear old clothes and shoes.
7. PLACE BOTTLES; stand the first bottle in your design with the bottom facing up (these do not have to be filled with anything the concrete later will keep them from breaking when stepped on) Using your rubber mallet, tap the bottle into the ground. Try to make sure it is as level as possible with the sides of the edges your concrete will be butting up to. These will just be like stones on the concrete that is surrounding them later
Note: If a bottle breaks while putting it into the ground, use a fork type garden tool to dig around the bottle to loosen and pliers to pull it out. Do NOT try to just pull out what is under the dirt, this is a good way to get cut!
8. After all your bottles are in the design you want you are ready for the next step. Are you Excited!!??
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| Closer look at the bottles before framing and pouring concrete |
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| All the bottles set now with dirt half way up. Now to frame |
9. FRAME YOUR AREA: My area is a square for the most part so all I did was add some scrap wood to the sides and front for my edge.
Sorry no pics of this but you can see the wood beside my walk that I used. Make sure to move your frame a little over from the edge of the bottles so the concrete will be solid on the edges.
If you are not doing a square you can use edging material or anything that will be at least the depth of your project. Home Depot, Lowes and even dollar general has plastic edging pretty cheap that works well for odd shaped projects. The frame will be popped off upon completion.
10. SPRAY COOKING SPRAY ON BOTTLES: at this time spray cooking spray on top of all the bottles. Don't be stingy with the spray, trust me you will be glad later (nobody told me this and I had a heck of a time getting the concrete off some of the bottles). You will be glad you did this step!
11. MIX YOUR CONCRETE; I used Quikrete that you just add water to. They sell it at lowes and home depot. I used a wheelbarrow to mix mine in but you can use a bucket if you don't have a wheelbarrow.
NOTE: Concrete should be the consistency of moist cookie dough.(I misremembered what I had read, when I did it and thought pancake batter and while it did eventually set up an get hard it was difficult to work with.). If you want colored concrete add a color additive to the mix (I wish I had, but I will buy some concrete stain later for a richer look)
12. Pour the concrete over the bottles and using a flat edged object (I used a piece of a 2x4) spread the concrete over the area making sure to get all the way to the edge of your frame. Keep working the concrete into all the crevices between the bottles by adding more as needed and using the edge to flatten. This also helps get the concrete off the bottle tops, remember to try to keep them out from under the solid surface. You can wipe the tops of the bottles as you go but Work as quickly as possible to avoid having breaks in the concrete between dried and where newly applied meet.
If possible it is good to have two or more people doing this, someone to mix the concrete (this was the hard part to me, so my hubby did that) and someone to pour and spread. Try to wipe as much as possible off the bottles as you go, but you don't have to worry too much about that right now, just don't completely cover them up and leave it.
We also took very wet concrete and brushed it over the bricks to feel in the cracks between them and the sidewalk etc.
13. Add any extra things like marbles, shells, rocks etc... now. (I also wish I had done this I may go back in and tack concrete some shells onto mine)
14. Let set for 1-2 hours
15. Lightly mist bottles with water hose and gently wipe away concrete from the tops
. The concrete around them should be set pretty well, so it should not pit it to wipe gently. If it seems to be moving the concrete when you touch it wait a little longer. leaving some water on the top of the bottles helps the concrete dust come off easier later.
16. Let dry 2-3 more hours or overnight and hose again lightly.
17. Hose the concrete and use a broom to clean the top of bottles and remove any concrete from them. If there is any that is a little hard lightly chisel loose with a plastic putty knife (I just used a butter knife)
18. YOU ARE DONE! Allow to set for a couple of days before putting total weight on this. It will be hard but might crack if not seasoned well. Wet lightly daily for the first week to help season the concrete. When the concrete is dry pull framing from the edge for a finished look.
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| After dry and knocking the framing boards from the edges |
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| after adding rock to the front and edging stones which made a 2'5" flowerbed |
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| View from the pool going into the yard |
