DigsMagazine.com | lounge: MAKESHIFT VASES

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a home + living guide for the post-college, pre-parenthood, quasi-adult generation

04.30.2001

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what to do with bare walls? don't be a wallflower! jump on over to the discussion boards and get decorating help.

other recent LOUNGE articles:
o Open House Gallery
o Newlyweds' Nest
o Variations on a Theme
o Hanging by a Wire
o travel decorating on the cheap
o what goes where?
furniture arranging 101
o Easy Corner Shelves
o Stain Rx
o Hang-up Help

7 smart ideas for cool makeshift vases | 1 2 3

Maybe your thoughtful blind date shows up bearing lilies. Or your repentant sweetie returns home bearing buds and profuse apologies. Or on impulse you picked a handful of wild poppies while walking back from work. Whatever the case may be, you’re holding posy in hand when suddenly, you realize there’s not a proper vase anywhere in your entire pad.

Sadly I only get flowers oh, about as often a leap year occurs, so on those rare occasions when someone does present me with a bouquet of flowery goodness, I’m always left scrambling around trying to find something, anything, in which to pop those stems. Someday when I’m a real adult, I’m sure I’ll have tall vases and short vases, bud vases and glass bowls to suit every possible floral need, but for now, I’m still at that makeshift stage of life. Fortunately, a little ingenuity can produce substitutes every bit as attractive as the real thing.

1. Beyond the Coke bottle
You don’t get through college without learning the Coke bottle as bud vase trick, right? So you’ve no doubt already discovered that soda bottles work nicely, especially those that come from gourmet pop like Orangina and Jones Soda. But wine bottles, olive oil bottles, fancy vinegar bottles and the like tend to be taller, and provide better support for your stems. Moreover, they often sport such pretty labels that you can use them as is. Spaghetti sauce and mason jars also make good casual vases, perfect for a bunch of fresh daisies or just-picked wildflowers. To remove any ugly labels – there’s just no way to pass off that Prego spaghetti sauce sticker as an aesthetic statement -- soak the jars in soapy water until the labels peel off easily.

this way please ...

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