The Glass Jar Upcycle That Brings A Nautical Vibe To Your Bathroom On A Budget

If you're going for that nautical look in the bathroom, whether your place is by the water or not, consider this your message in a bottle: Save your glass jars! That's because there are many ways to upcycle glass jars into bathroom storage solutions, not just for form but for function too. Bring the beachy vibe indoors by decorating the outside of the jars, but leave the insides for stashing useful items for you and your guests, including cotton balls, Q-tips, bars of soap, Band-Aids, and even facial tissues.

If pasta sauce isn't in your regular meal rotation, large pickle jars also work nicely for this upcycle. Or, you can purchase glass jars cheap at the thrift shop or dollar store. Even Mason jars can be transformed into a sea-inspired display piece. In terms of other materials, you can head to the beach for shells, bits of sea glass, and other found objects (as long as you're allowed to take them home). If you live nowhere near the coast, you can buy low-cost seashells, fish net, sand, pebbles, faux foliage, and other shore-inspired booty online or at a dollar or craft store. Either way, this reuse will work well for makers on a budget.

When it comes time to decorate the jars, you'll want to wash them first, making sure that the glass is squeaky clean. Because you will store common personal care items within, use jars with a wide mouth, so it's easy for hands to reach inside. After cleaning, soak the jars in soapy hot water and peel off the labels. Anything collected from the beach will also need to be thoroughly cleaned, particularly if a creature once lived inside, using diluted bleach (1 tablespoon per gallon of water) or vinegar. This should get rid of any bad smells.

Once everything is clean and dry, get creative. Hot glue a strip of hessian fabric, faux pearls, shells, and fake greenery, as @misshpcraft does for her coastal storage jars. The cloth band will give your shells and other decorations something to stick onto, and prevent you from seeing any unsightly blobs of glue through the other side of the jar. 

Besides this simple but pretty DIY, there are tons of other ways you can decorate jars for a beach-themed bathroom. You can wrap sisal rope around the jar for decoration or even create a handle with the rope and hang the jars, turning them into lanterns with tea lights. Alternatively, give clear glass jars an ocean-inspired color with spray paint, such as the Krylon Sea Glass spray paint ($14.26 at Walmart), or use Mod Podge and food coloring for a similar effect.

Or, bring the beach into your bathroom with an adorable DIY jar upcycle by simply filling jars with sand from a destination you remember fondly. Create memory jars, labeling the outside of each with the name of the beach where the sand was collected. You can layer different color sands to create a swirling effect inside the jars, or add some battery-operated fairy lights for an extra pop. You can also take a decorative jar, such as one from an old candle after the wax has been removed, and fill it with shells or sea pebbles. 

And finally, there's another way to bring the sea inside the home, literally. When @surf_scholer found herself landlocked, she built a reef jar. In this monumental upcycle, the reef was purchased at a store and added to a jar with sand, a water pump, and a heater. So if you want a living piece of the sea in your WC, this could be a fun project to try, especially if you have a large cookie jar that's begging for a new use.