DIY Oyster Shell Candles: Coastal Home Decor and Gifts
Elevate your home with DIY oyster shell candles. Learn to craft these natural, luxurious candles using gold-sprayed shells and fragranced wax—ideal for nautical centrepieces or the perfect handmade gift.
This holiday season, transform the ocean’s treasures into a sparkling array of gold oyster shell candles, perfect for elevating your home decor or gifting a piece of the coast. While decorating my Christmas tree, I discovered some oyster shells were too big for ornaments. Instead of discarding them, I envisioned a more luxurious addition to my decor—handmade candles crafted from these shells.
Spray-painting the larger shells gold, I filled them with vibrantly coloured and fragranced candle wax, turning them into exquisite nautical centrepieces. These natural oyster shell candles, when lit, not only enhance the ambience but also boast an impressive burn time, thanks to the high-quality organic soy wax used.
Ideal for any occasion, from housewarming to dinner parties, these oyster candles represent a thoughtful and perfect gift. Presented in a DIY, nautical-themed gift box wrapped in tissue paper, they evoke an ocean of love and appreciation. Moreover, by utilizing recycled oyster shell dishes and free fragrances, this project aligns with eco-friendly practices, making these candles beautiful and kind to our planet.
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What You Need to Make Oyster Candles
- Large oyster shells - Ask your local fishmonger or restaurant. If that's impossible, I bet someone is selling them on eBay!
- Gold Spray Paint
- Organic Soya wax flakes and candle wicks- or old candles
- Blue candle wax dye (optional)
- Candle fragrance oil
- Old cardboard gift box large enough to fit the candles in.
- Nautical themed gift wrap - for coastal decor
- Old saucepan and glass jug
How To Make Oyster Shell Candles
Step 1: The first thing I did was to spray paint the outside of the oyster shells gold.
Step 2: Next, I worked out roughly how much wax I needed to fill and make the handmade oyster shell candles. To do this, I filled each shell with water, tipped it into a jug, and measured the amount of liquid.
Step 3: To melt the wax to make the handmade candles, you will need a "Bain Marie." You don't want to melt the wax directly as it is a fire risk.
To make your own "Bain Marie," put the wax in a Pyrex jug or bowl and place this bowl over simmering water in a saucepan. This is the same method you would use to melt chocolate on a stove.
As soon as all the wax has melted (it will clear), add a few drops of dye to colour your candles. To keep with a seaside theme, I dyed my wax blue. You can also add a fragrance such as bergamot oils at this point if you want smelly candles.
Step 4: Carefully pour the molten wax into the oyster shells. Place a wick in each shell and use two wooden skewers to hold it upright as the wax cools and sets. You may find using a wooden wick cut to size easier.
Step 5: Leave the handmade candles for a couple of hours to harden the wax. Once the wax has set, cut the wicks down to size.
Step 6: Finally, as these candles are a gift, I made a lovely presentation box for them. I covered a cardboard box with nautical map wrapping paper and laid the oyster shell candles on shredded tissue paper.
If you can't find any nautical wrapping paper, there is a large collection of wonderful free vintage nautical images for print and use.
Conclusion and Other Posts
These handmade candles would look fabulous as a centrepiece on the dinner table. Even though I have made these as a gift, I will keep some for myself the next time I cook a special dinner. These other unique candle container ideas make a lovely homemade gift.
They are also a great craft to make and sell, and a fun summer craft too.
If you liked this post, check out these adult seashell crafts that include many ideas, including my seashell paint palette, Scallop Shell bookends and scallop shell trinket dishes. Or these map seashell gift ideas.
You may like my repurposed denim fish pillow with the seaside theme.
For more tabletop light decorations, check out these stylish air dry clay candles and cute mini Chinese paper lantern tea light jars.
Lovely idea I can’t wait to try this ❤️
Thank homemade candles are an easy gift to make.
how did you pain the "rim" part of the oyster (the outline of the shell...the part that shows when you see the wax candle). spray paint as well? if so how did you not get it into the middle (where the wax is?)
Hi Amy, I sprayed a little paint onto a plate to create a small puddle of paint. I then dipped a fine paint brush in the puddle and painted the edge of the shell with this paint. I hope that helps. Thanks Claire.
I love this and how natural it is without any of the nasty chemicals that some candles have, fab idea X
Thank you, yes very natural.
What a brilliant idea on how to reuse the shells, I would love to make my own candles. Do you put essential oils for the scents?
Thank you. Yes you can add essential oils for scent.
Claire that is one beautiful candle. I can imagine it being done with all sorts of seashells too. It's too bad I'm not in Greece anymore where they were plentiful.
Thank you. I miss being beside the sea too. You'll have to pick some up next time you visit.
A wonderful idea for oyster shells ~ the candles turned out beautiful! Happily pinned. <3
Have a great rest of your weekend,
Barb 🙂
Aww, thank you and thanks for the shares.
I love the combination of rustic and elegant in this fun gift idea! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm--pinned!
Thank you, Cecillia. Yes the gold paint looks lovely on the gnarled shells.
These are sooo pretty! I wouldn't even burn, them I would just leave them for some pretty decor!
Thank you, Linda. They would look good as the tea lights you use for hot plates on the table.
Claire, I adore these candles, so pretty! Thank you for sharing them at the Talk Of The Town party 🙂
Thank you Marie.
These are so cute and make me think of summer and beaches. A great thing to have around to help with the winter blues. Thanks for sharing.
Thwnk you. Yes they have a beach feel but with a warm glow when lit.
These are gorgeous! I would be thrilled to receive these. I like the idea of adding essential oils to add a scent #handmademonday
Thank you. They do look good on the dinner table, I'm going to save mine for next time I have guests.
What a fun & cute gift idea! Very creative! Thanks for sharing at Merry Monday!
Thank you so much!
What a fun idea. Love, love, love how the gold spray paint looks on the shells. It's sooooooo incredibly pretty and if there's one thing we always have at home, it's oyster shells. I'm a little addicted to them 😉
Thanks, Michelle. It's amazing how a bit of gold paint can make something ordinary look glam.
These reminded me of sand candles we made using a shoe box filled with sand and creating a shape and then filling it with wax in girl scouts when I was little. I may have to resurrect it for a blog post! Thanks for sharing with us at Creatively Crafty Link Party #CCBG
They sound like fun. I’d love to see that blog post.