I have a special fondness for mercury glass no matter what time of the year but especially in winter.  Winter nights are long and the days are short and anything that catches and reflects a little more light around my home makes me happy.

I spray painted the inside of this clear bottle to give it the mirrored effect of mercury glass, then added this cute little snow baby graphic (I’ll give you all the who, what, where, when, how info at the end of this post!)

I love the look of dried cotton but since I didn’t have any available to me I made my own.  What do you think?

  On Christmas my sister-in-law asked me where I got the cotton and when I told her my secret she was so impressed.

On the reverse side of the bottle I added a different graphic.

In my powder room I have these great vintage bottles on display.  I was fortunate enough to find a whole “family” of them at a local thrift store for $2.00 apiece.   After a few light coats of spray paint I applied French perfume bottle labels which seemed fitting for a powder room.

 

A little twine and few sprigs of faux winter berry branches make these festive all winter long.

This is a vase I had on hand (one of those vases that collect under the sink after the flowers are gone).   I added a pretty vintage earring for a little more bling.

Roses and mercury glass go so well together . . .

As an FYI, Looking Glass spray will not withstand water.  I put my flowers in a ZipLock bag filled with water and carefully slipped it down into the vase.  You could also insert a smaller vase inside a large one.

Here mercury glass is a part of my winter centerpiece.  Silver and gold mixed together is festive for New Year’s and beyond. 

A little warmth on a cold winter’s night.

One last touch of mercury glass in my home are these light fixtures that I purchased to hang over my kitchen island.  Being a DIYer I tried to use my fancy spray paint on the frosted glass shades that used to hang here.  Note: Mercury glass spray paint does not look good on frosted glass!  They turned out looking more like metal shades than glass.  Oh well, there are bound to be some failures along the way.

I thought these were reasonably priced and they came from Pottery Barn.

So, here are the details, as promised: 

For all of the DIY mercury glass projects I used Krylon Looking Glass spray paint (found at WalMart) to create the mirrored effect.  There are many good tutorials to be found online but for these pieces I simply followed the instructions on the can and sprayed a thin coat of paint down into the bottle followed by a spritz of water to make the water drop effect.  I speeded up the drying time by using my hair dryer between each coat of paint.  On the more “see-through” items (like the old bottles) I used 3-4 coats of paint and on the vases I probably used 5-6 coats of paint. 

All of the cute graphics are from The Graphics Fairy.  If you haven’t been to her fabulous website you’ve gotta go!  To age the paper I dipped it in very strong coffee, placed it on a cookie sheet and baked it in the oven at 200 degrees for about 10 minutes.  Then I applied it to my bottles with Mod Podge.

For the homemade cotton twigs I used pieces of polyfill stuffing which I sort of rolled into balls between my hands and “stuck” onto pussy willow branches at random.  I didn’t use any glue at all  and they’ve held up just fine.

Do you love the look of mercury glass as much as I do?  For more bright and shiny inspiration be sure to check out my Pinterest Board “Mercury Glass Love”. I’ve pinned a lot of items that I’d like to try to duplicate myself, if I can find the right clear glass pieces.  I’ve also pinned some ideas on how to use mercury glass pieces in home decor. 

Keep your light shining bright throughout this winter season.

Blessings to you,