So you got a beautiful bouquet of flowers with your favorite blooms in a classic arrangement. Then you notice the vase; it's a glass vase, just a plain clear glass vase. Should you pitch it? Should you add it to the collection of glass vases already under your kitchen sink?

There are many creative uses for a glass vase, some obvious, some not so. All will take that plain glass vase and turn it into something more useful and pretty.

Ideas

One fun idea particularly popular around the holidays is to buy plain window screen, the lighter the color the better. You can spray paint the window screen gold or silver. Set your glass vase on the top of a square of window screen and bring all the sides of the screening to the top of the vase. Secure with a piece of ribbon, and fill the vase with flowers. This will give your plain glass vase a new life on the mantle along with greenery and candles.

Take a popular trend and turn your glass vase into a gift or keepsake for yourself. Buy glass paints, and paint the glass vase. You can make it personal for a friend or relative, or just use your own craft skills to create a pretty, hand painted glass vase.

Tricks

Depending on the shape and size of your glass vase, you can use several decorator tricks to make your vase a decorative feature rather than an inexpensive eyesore. Many decorators like to fill glass vases with pretty ornaments and set them on side tables and on shelves during the holidays. You can fill a glass vase with a collection, like shells from your summer beach vacation or rocks your child has collected from the outdoors.

If you have several similar glass vases, you can fill them each with a single bloom and place them on a windowsill or shelf and enjoy the simplicity of the look. You can fill a glass vase with decorative marbles and use that as a decor touch, or even bookends if you create two that match. Finally, don't forget the obvious, once your gifted blooms fade, you can clip some flowers from your garden or bring home a bouquet from the local florist and bring your simple glass vase back to life with a fresh bunch of bright flowers.

Photo by tanakawho, Creative Commons Attribution License