15 Items That Will Look Stunning Inside Your Fillable Glass Lamp

Unique and distinctive décor doesn't have to be expensive, particularly when it comes to stylish lighting. There are seemingly infinite options for retail-provided lamps and DIY approaches to lighting your home. One popular lamp style adds a little bit of both these dynamics, providing a glass jar or cylinder as a base that you can fill as desired with everything from seashells and crystals to your favorite miniatures and toys. The many options allow you to create the perfect lighting fixture to fit your space.

These lamps are widely available from home stores and online retailers, like this round Ashley Samder Contemporary Glass Table Lamp or this cylindrical GLOBE Electric Fillable Table Lamp. You may even be lucky enough to have an old one on hand or find one in a thrift store. For most, the top or the bottom is removable, allowing you to fill the interior of the lamp with small objects. Since they are easy to open, you can even switch out the contents periodically throughout the year as your needs and taste change, making one of these lamps a great adaptable piece for many years of use. You can also turn a glass jar into a perfect DIY version if you have a Mason jar or large glass jug on hand.

If you love sewing and mending, you likely have a huge collection of buttons both new and old. Why not turn your collection into part of your décor by filling your lamp base with pretty buttons? Choose all one color for a monochrome look, all white and cream for a neutral one, or add an eclectic collection of colors, sizes, and materials.

Fill your lamp base with seashells for a stylish décor piece that fits a number of different coastal-inspired aesthetics. This is a great way to add a natural touch to your space or to provide a place to store and display shells you've collected from vacations past. It's also possible to replicate this idea with small dried starfish, sand dollars, or coral pieces.

Fill the bottom of your lamp with pebbles or moss and create a tiny terrarium inside with small plants, rocks, and other natural objects. Aquarium plants and gravel also make excellent additions. Or, for a more whimsical feel, add small figurines and animals to create a fairy garden lamp lit up by battery-operated twinkle lights. You can also make a DIY terrarium lamp using a large jar and a lamp kit. 

For another ocean-inspired lamp, fill the bottom with sea glass in a variety of beautiful shades. You can collect it on your own or buy bags of it from craft retailers. If you're having trouble sourcing real sea glass, small blue and green glass gems from Dollar Tree will provide a similar look. You could also add some twinkle lights inside so the glass glows at night.

Colorful pom poms are a fun and festive way to decorate a clear lamp. They come in various sizes and colors, so it's very easy to customize the look to your taste. If you're not finding options you like, you can even make your own pom poms in seconds out of some yarn. This would be a great item to fill a lamp for a kids room or a space that revels in bright neon or primary colors.

Beautiful crystals are a pretty and boho-style way to fill the base of your lamp, giving you a chance to display small crystals in a contained area so they don't get lost. Other great options for a neutral or biophilic space are rocks or pebbles, which you can buy in bulk or collect during your wanderings and travels.

Create an adorable lamp for a kids room or any nostalgic-inspired space by displaying small toys in the base. Great options include Legos, toy cars, rubber balls, plastic army figures, animal miniatures, or tiny capsules from vending machines — pretty much any tiny toy or figurine will fit the bill. For a creepily fun lamp for gothic spaces, use a selection of antique doll parts and heads. 

Fill your lamp with small paper objects like small cranes or paper stars for a cute and colorful way to make your lamp a piece of art. For larger origami pieces, arrange them attached to other elements like sticks or dangling from fishing line to create a pretty diorama. Larger origami flowers made from decorative or tissue paper can create a beautiful romantic lamp when carefully piled up in the base.

For a great way to add texture and softness to the lamp, fill the bottom cavity with balls made from yarn or twine. Get colorful with multicolored balls or opt for more neutral balls or spools of jute or white twine. If you are a knitter, this is a great way to use up small bits of unused yarn at the end of your projects.

If you are an avid gamer, use the base of a lamp to store your favorite dice or other board game pieces like checkers, marbles, or Scrabble tiles. This is a great use for playing pieces from incomplete game sets you may find at the thrift store or other secondhand retailers. This makes a perfect lamp for a game room or kids play space.

Since you can switch out the items in clear lamps rather easily, swap out the contents each season to create a charming lamp that reflects various holidays and times of year. For winter, add fake snow and bottlebrush trees for a darling snow globe lamp. In the spring, fill the lamp with plastic eggs. In the summer, decorate it with faux lemons or giant gumballs. For Halloween, add small skulls or plastic spider rings.

If you love wine, put all those corks to use by dropping them into a clear lamp base. Not only does the cork add texture and a rustic vibe, you can create a collection of corks and toppers from bottles enjoyed on special occasions. You could also do this with beer bottle caps to create a lamp perfect for a man cave.

Use the base of your lamp as a place to display prized mementos like photos, postcards, ticket stubs, and more. The more pieces you add, the more the display evolves and grows, creating a scrapbook or memory album behind the glass. You can also add other fun souvenirs from your travels or important moments like coins, paper currency, keychains, luggage tags, and pins.

Use the base of the lamp for loose or arranged dried flowers and greenery for a boho-inspired décor vibe. You could also fill it with larger faux flowers for a romantic cottagecore look. Add some battery operated twinkle lights inside the glass to create more light to see the flowers more vividly when using the lamp at night. 

To add texture to your décor, fill a clear lamp with natural items like pine cones, nuts, seed pods, and other organic material. You could also use materials like sticks, dried moss, wooden branch rounds, tree bark segments, or driftwood. Collect materials from your yard or hiking adventures to fill the lamp — just make sure everything is properly cleaned and dried before placing it inside.