Breathe New Life Into How You Display Your Shot Glasses With A Stunning Light-Up DIY

Shot glasses are an important part of any home bar. Whether they are simple utilitarian glasses you use to measure spirits or novelty souvenir shot glasses from travel, a vintage collection, or remnants of valuable memories, finding a way to store these smaller drinkware items can be challenging. They are very likely to get lost among other glassware, misplaced, or broken from getting knocked around. Internet DIYers, however, have some amazing suggestions for building stunning pieces specifically intended for displaying shot glasses. 

An illuminated shot glass collection makes your home bar feel like a cozy and chic watering hole or nightclub. These light-up displays are perfect for mounting above your home bar or in your kitchen, dining room, or cozy man cave. While some of the best approaches involve building a cabinet or shelf from scratch, with the simple addition of LED strips or twinkle lights, you can also alter existing shelving. These DIY approaches are also usually much less expensive to make than buying a similar pre-made piece from retailers.

For an easy DIY project using an ordinary strand of wire strung twinkle lights, attach three or more wood slatted crates (pre-made or hand-built) to two 1x2-inch strips of wood that you will attach to the wall. Measure and mark the length of your wood crates or boxes, then screw them into the two lengths of wood. Wrap the boxes in a strand of twinkle lights, using the space between the slats of the crates to keep them concealed and around the outside of the boxes. The tutorial also allows you to add other things like a planter box and wine glass storage rack for a multi-functional storage piece.

For a large horizontal glass display that can sit on a counter or mount on the wall, create a long wooden box from 2x4-inch pieces of wood cut down to size. This tutorial uses miter saw to create the attachment joints, which are fastened with wood glue and brad nails, but you could also use a pocket screw jig. An LED strip concealment slot, created with a router, runs the length of the piece and threaded out the end to attach to a power supply. Another version of this idea creates a vertical series of shelves with 2.5-inch slats with grooves encased in a casing made of 3.5-inch pieces. Small routed out circular grooves harbor the lights that are wired through a longer groove in the back of the shelves. 

If you do not want to build a unit from scratch, there are some easy ways to modify existing slender shelves or cases to create a display with added lights using some of the same principles of concealment. For existing wall mounted shelves that you can't remove from the wall, try embedding the LED strip lighting inside a U-shaped length of wood or metal trough that conceals the lights and mutes their glow. You may want to experiment with desired lighting effects regarding angles (from above or below, in front or behind). Thread the LEDs through the trough, which can be painted the same shade as the shelf. If you can remove shelves from the walls to work with them, you can also add strip lights with a routed groove into the existing shelves and thread the power elements out the end. 

While the above projects are wired, you may be wondering how to create a display without a power source or wiring know-how. Battery-operated LEDs strip or strand lights, which still can be beautiful though will have a shorter lifespan, do have the added benefit of allowing you to change color and turn them on and off with a remote. Some sets can even sync to music. For your next party, try adding some hidden lights to decorate your bar cart to make your entire glassware collection, including shot glasses, pop with color and light.