Light Up Your Space With A Clever DIY Mason Jar Idea

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Mason jars are more than just a canning tool; they are frequently used to make rustic home décor. While social media is filled with mason jar lamp ideas, most of them make use of battery-powered or sometimes solar lights that can be unreliable, expensive, or require you to become an apprentice electrician to get them working. For example, a string of fairy lights inside a jar looks undeniably cute, but when they are powered by batteries, you are left working out how to hide the bulky battery box, constantly replacing dead batteries, or accidentally damaging fragile wires. Instead, skip the fuss and light your spaces with a practical and suitably cottagecore DIY mason jar oil lamp.

These simple but long-lasting mason jar lamps make for the perfect centerpiece indoors or out. The live flame is so pretty that it almost seems as though you're repurposing wedding décor into your home's décor. Depending on the type of oil you fill the jar with, you can expect many hours of light. Plus, you often don't need to replace the wick at all — unless it gets damaged or you use the lamp very regularly. Once you have gone to the trouble of assembling your mason jar oil lamp, it will continue to light a room. The only maintenance you'll need to do is refill the oil and, in some cases, occasionally trim the wick. You can easily make two styles of mason jar oil lamps at home: a closed lamp or an open lamp.

This oil lamp DIY is just one of the many clever ways to reuse old glass jars around the house. All lamp styles require a mason jar, a wick, and some oil (there are several types to choose from). Tool-wise, it may be useful to have a drill or pair of pliers on hand. If you have lidless mason jars, you can make oil lamps with a wick and some wire. However, oil lamps work best with a mason jar lid and ring, which hold the wick in place. Or, for a more elegant look, you can use ⅛ inch nipples, couplings, and washers. The wick should be made of cotton or fiberglass. You can use whatever thickness of wick you prefer, but ⅛ inch is generally recommended for oil lamps.

It's worthwhile to consider the pros and cons of different oils for burning before you get started making this DIY mason jar lamp. Cooking oils, such as vegetable, canola, or olive, will work in your lamp. Unfortunately, they typically burn faster than paraffin oil, which is recommended for use in quality oil lamps. For example, olive oil burns at a rate of one ounce every two hours, but paraffin lamp oil burns at a rate of one ounce every six hours. Cooking oil can also degrade a wick faster, and it can have an unpleasant smell when extinguished. If odor is important to you, you can use fragranced oil, which provides both fuel and scent.

In a closed lamp, the mason jar lid secures the wick in place, keeps the oil fresh, and reduces the risk of spillage. It's elegant, resembling a candle. There are two ways to assemble this style of lamp. The first is arguably easiest because it requires little modification. Drill a hole in the lid from the inside, making it slightly narrower than the width of the wick. Cut the wick to a few inches longer than the mason jar. Feed the wick through the hole so that ¼ to ½ inch sticks out the top. The other end of the wick should rest on the bottom of the jar. Fill the jar with your chosen oil and screw on the lid. For a tidier finish, thread an ⅛ inch nipple through the hole before adding the wick, and top it off with a washer and coupling.

The flame in an open lamp looks like it is floating in the center of the jar. This type of lamp doesn't require a lid. Instead, hold a portion of the wick out of the oil with wire. Overall, it's the more rustic of the two styles. To DIY an open lamp, bend a length of wire over the mouth of the lidless mason jar using a pair of pliers and attach the wick to it. Like the closed lamp, a small portion of the wick should sit above the oil while the rest is in the jar. Alternatively, skip the wire and use a LightLamps Floating Flower Candle Wick, which is designed to sit on top of the oil without sinking. To display your lamps, reuse old wood planks to make the cutest mason jar storage tray.