Peaceful Home: DIY Upcycled Candle Jars

As a lazy decorator, I love using candles as a quick and easy way to add a warm, flattering glow to the room. But what do you do with the random collection of glass jars you’re left with after the candles die? Don’t throw them out, reuse them! In this post I’ll show just how easy it is to repurpose your old candle jars into something shiny and new.

Two candles I turned into jars for the bathroom!

First off, you’ll need to get the wax out of the jar. Here are two popular methods for doing this:

Method 1: Freezing

Step 1: Take your old candle jar and stick it in the freezer for at least one hour.

Step 2: Remove the candle and use a sharp tool (any knife will do!) to break up the wax. It should crumble and break apart into chunks easily. Throw the old wax away.

Step 3: If the wick is still stuck to the bottom, pour some hot water into the jar and it should loosen up. Then clean the jar by running it through the dishwasher. Any remaining sticky bits can easily be removed with a spritz of Goo Gone and a little bit of elbow grease.

This method is easy, but takes patience waiting for the wax to freeze. The next method is faster, but requires more attention!

Method 2: Heating

Step 1: Fill a large pot with several inches of water- enough so that when the candles are placed in the pot the water level reaches the level of the wax, but isn’t too much higher.

Step 2: On low heat, gently warm the wax until it melts. Caution: you do not want to boil the jars and risk cracking the glass. Barely simmering water will do!

Step 3: As the wax begins to melt, you can help it along by breaking it up with a knife. Dump the wax (NOT down the sink!) and clean as usual.

The heating method: before, during, and after

Now that you’ve got some clean jars, the sky’s the limit! Here’s a list of what you could do:

-Make a mini terrarium

-Turn into small planters for indoor plants

-Use as storage in the pantry

-Organize office supplies on your desk

-Use as a flower vase, and so on.

In my case, I desperately needed to wrangle my collection of makeup brushes, so I used my jars as brush holders. I simply created a pattern I liked using masking tape and used gold spray paint and voila– upcycled candle jars!