I know most people have hopped on the LED Flameless Candle and lighter bandwagons but I love real candles and matches. I liked having matchbooks from different places we’d been but I didn’t like that there are so few matches in them. I didn’t want to keep big boxes of matches laying around either so I started looking into alternatives. I saw that people put sandpaper on the top of mason jars filled with matches, but after reading the comments quickly learned it was not that easy. “you need certain numbered grit sandpaper, you need an impossible-to-find type of match, etc” derailed me from that plan when I thought, duh… put a piece of the strike strip from box on the bottom of cool bottles! I went out and found some old-school apothecary jars and got to work and I’m loving the idea. These little bottles not only look cool but they’re much easier than tracking down a clunky box every time you want to light a candle! 

Start off by getting your supplies, you’ll need small glass bottles, matches and double stick tape (1). I use large kitchen matches because they’re extra thick which allows them to burn longer. Cut a small square of the match strike strip small enough to fit on the bottom of your bottle (2). Apply some double stick tape to the bottom of the strike strip, being sure to trim off overhang (3). I use tape so that it stays secure but you can still peel it off if you want to use your bottle for something else or the strip needs to be replaced after a lot of use. Attach the square to the bottom of your bottle (4) and fill it with matches (5). Simply shake out a match when you need on and strike it along the bottom of the bottle (6)!

I like the kind of creepy look of an apothecary jar on the stack of Alexander McQueen books in our living room but it didn’t really work in my office, so I did the same thing using a mercury glass votive instead: