I love the test tube as vase idea for a flower centerpiece idea. It’s absolutely beautiful and so unique. And to give credit where credit is due, this idea was inspired by the Bloom set from Aglow Candles Co.

For my full blog post on Lucy’s birthday party details, click here.

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Note: You can purchase the Base here from Aglow Candles (there are 3 different sizes, 2ft, 3ft or 4ft lengths), and get the Bloom vials (sold separately) to put in the base.

In this post, I will share how I made mine (a total of 8ft in length, cut into four 2 ft pieces). The total cost of material was $80, so each piece on average costs $20. Not counting the cost of flowers of course.

Tools and materials needed for the test tube floral vase

What you need:

Tools:

• A drill or impact driver.
• A 7/8″ Forstner drill bit. Buy the drill bit here ($10), I got a Forstner bit set with various sizes ($25) because I wasn’t sure which size I needed.
• Optional: a saw (circular saw, miter saw, table saw may work. Basically anything to do straight clean cuts into 4×4 lumber). If you don’t have a saw, have Home Depot cut up the lumber when you buy it into the desired lengths.
• Sanding paper or sanding block.
• Measuring tape and a marker.
• Work Gloves because we don’t want splinter.
• Protective glasses as there will be a lot of wood shavings and dust.

Materials:

• Any 4×4 lumber – You can choose any type you like, I used Douglas Fir for about $15 a piece . You can get 8ft in length and have the store cut into 4 pieces (2ft long each), that’s how long my centerpiece is. Or you can do 3ft, 3ft and a 2ft. Or two big ones of 4ft each! (Cost: $15)
• About 100 test tubes total – I got a total of 5 packs, each pack contains 20 test tubes, $13 each pack. Be sure to get the 0.8inch width so it fits for the 7/8″ drill bit. (Cost $65)

Tips on picking lumber: always make sure to pick the straightest and smoothest piece of lumber that you can find. You don’t want your centerpieces to be crooked or curved. But I understand sometimes your selection may be limited, so we will work with what we have.

Try to also pick lumber with no knots in the grain. I made a mistake of picking a piece with a couple of knots in it. It’s much harder to drill into those knots. If you happen to have a knot, you can use that side as the bottom.

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Step-by-step instructions

1. Decide on the lengths of your centerpieces

I originally wanted to have 2 large centerpieces, 4ft long each. So I drew a straight line down the middle of the lumber. But then much later in the process, I decided to go with 2ft pieces instead, so I then cut my pieces into smaller halves. You can start with a longer length, and cut it down if you decide later that you want shorter.

It helps to lay out the markers, however, if you can decide on the desired lengths ahead of time. So, let’s pretend you want 2ft long pieces like my final products. Draw 3 lines on your lumber to mark where the cut would be (or ask the store where you buy the material to pre-cut your lumber).

2. Mark where to drill

This is totally my personal preference. I put a couple of test tubes up against the wood and decided I like the staggered look. The look that I went with happened to include test tubes spaced 2.5 inches apart, with 3 rows of test tubes alternating with each other.

I started one end of the wood, mark the first spots on row 1 and row 3 about 1 inch in. Then from there, mark the rest of rows 1 and 3 each spot 2.5 inches from the previous.

For the middle row, mark the spots 2.5 inches apart, alternating with rows 1 and 3.

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You may choose to do a less crowded look by spacing the markers further apart. Maybe you can experience with just 1 or 2 rows, instead of 3. But I do not suggest doing anything more crowded than 2 inches (don’t mark the spots closer than 2 inches apart). You need space in between for the flowers.

Note: It should be obvious that if you go with a more crowded look, you’d need more test tubes. And if you go with a more scattered look, you’d need less test tubes.

3. Drill holes for the test tubes

Attach the 7/8″ Forstner drill bit to your drill or impact driver. Line the pointy center of the drill bit to a marker, and drill down into the wood. As straight as possible.

How deep do you drill? This I will leave up to you. I did not figure out the best way to do it. I just went with somewhere halfway down the thickness of the wood (so around 2 inches deep) and honestly just eyeballed it. If you want, you can measure to see how deep you’ve drilled and adjust.

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Just to check yourself, get a test tube and insert into the hole you just drilled to see if it fits. If you use the right size drill bit I suggested (7/8″) with the 0.8″ width test tubes, this should work.

Once you check and the size works, keep drilling. Got 8ft worth of holes to drill! This step takes the longest time. But it’ll be worth it.

4. Clean up and sand

I placed a plastic trash bag on the ground, right where the wood shavings would fall into. Then flipped the wood upside down, used a plastic knife to get the wood shavings out.

After that, I used a sanding block to smooth out the opening of each hole. And the top surface of the wood.

Optional: if you’re really handy, feel free to stain the wood or apply a shiny top coat. I chose to leave it as is, less work and I don’t mind the raw wood look!

4b. Cut to desired lengths

If your centerpieces weren’t already pre-cut in step 1, you can cut them now. This step is self explanatory, straight cut down the pre-drawn lines.

5. Insert the test tubes

Lastly, the exciting part, put your test tubes into the holes. I would suggest bringing the wood pieces to nearby where you would have the flowers arranged before inserting the test tubes.

And you are ready to fill them with water and flowers!

I used this exact size (0.8″ width) test tubes ($13 for a 20-pack) and they worked perfectly with the 7/8″ drill bit.

6. You are ready to arrange flowers

Another way you can use this centerpiece is with tapered candles. Like so:

I hope you like the tutorial on how to DIY this test tube flower vase. What a beautiful, and unique way to display your floral centerpiece for a party, or even a wedding!

DIY Lifestyle