DIY Salt and Pepper Shakers From Miniature Liquor Bottles
Hey guys if you have ever wanted to diy a unique set of salt and pepper shakers? These are adorable…and can make great handmade gifts too! If you’re a collector of little glass bottles this is the perfect way to repurpose them with panache!
A couple of years ago I made a set of salt and pepper shakers using a couple of small 2 oz Jack Daniels whiskey bottles and gifted them to my husband’s uncle for Christmas. He loved them! Now that’s a really good man cave gift idea, if you’re thinking about it.
I used what they call the “sleeping pill” size which is like 4 oz or something. If you want to make your own salt and pepper shakers this way, those cute little liquor bottles served on airplanes would work well…They are usually made of plastic; I used a bunch of them to make this cool party light set.
I prefer glass and for that you have to get those “sleeping pill” sizes, as the miniature airplane or mini-bar ones are usually plastic.
I’m demo-ing using a pair of JD bottles for this salt and pepper set. Sorry I may have gifted the Jaegers you see in the big pinnable image.
Pin for Later?
Materials List
2 small matching bottles
Cordless drill and very small bits
Toothpicks
Optional: Mod Podge
Disclaimer: You don’t actually have to go to a liquor store; you can probably find small liquor bottles at your nearest thrift or antique store. A lot of people treat these as “vintage collectibles” so they should be easy to find.
I don’t want to encourage any drinking to do this craft hehehe. Seriously, I find empty bottles on the ground during my walks….they’re not hard to spot. Oh yeah, little teeny travel size bottles such as those that hold shampoo or mouthwash, would also work great! Almost any small, hollow object that comes in a set of 2 will qualify.
Let’s Do This: How To DIY These Cute Salt and Pepper Shakers!
First, wash out your empty bottles. Whether or not you want to keep the labels on is up to you; I wanted to preserve mine so I applied a coat of Mod Podge to both the front and back labels:
1. Unscrew the caps and check for one of those little protective papery liners. You can easily pry them out using a flat head screwdriver or nail file. As an optional tip, if you want to give these as gifts keep the liners (if you got them out cleanly) and after you fill up the shakers you can replace them to keep the salt and pepper from leaking out.
2 I put tape over the bottle lids, it makes it easier when drilling, and keeps from scratching them inadvertently.Mark the holes with a Sharpie.
3) Use the tiniest drill bit you have on hand (I used the 1.98 mm or 1.58 mm ) make a few little holes in the middle of each bottle cap. You may only need one hole for the pepper, as most pepper shakers always seem to have only one hole. For the Jaeger shakers, I probably used about 6 in the salt and 3 in the pepper.
4. Using a toothpick, run it through the little holes to give them a little definition. If the caps are plastic there may be some plastic dust pieces coming out…you will want to blow them off. (Canned air works well)
If your caps are metal (like mine) there isn’t much dust – but on the other side of the caps the holes you just made may be a little sharp and raw looking. Turn them over and use something like an emery board to file them down.
5. Now you can fill the shakers… Planning to give these as gifts? You can fill them with salt and pepper to be extra nice 😊 AND you may want to put the paper insert back under the caps so the ingredients won’t spill out, or if you lost the inserts, a piece of Saran wrap will work like a charm.
I eventually gifted the Jaeger shakers to my niece for Christmas 2018 – she thought they were cool -this is the set I made to keep for myself, after filling both of them up:
Hey that was fun wasn’t it? If you’ve got a bigger bottle collection, make several sets like this and give them as gifts! And keep one for yourself like I did – this is a great idea to add a little flair to your barware, kitchen and dining accessory collection!
