We had a crazy idea to create a single decorative piece for each of the most popular home decor styles that are shoppable on Aarons.com, but we had to do it using only items that cost $1.
With tremendous luck, we were able to purchase all of these items at a single store location and each finished decoration cost only between $4 & $6 plus tax. That’s all! Most of them took 30 minutes or less to assemble, but we’re not going to hide anything… A couple of our ideas turned out to be harder to create than planned. They took longer and didn’t look as good as we’d hoped. Still, we are so excited to share all of the results and tell you how they were made. Take a look at all five decorations below.
Classic Decor Style Faux Terrarium $5 +tax
Classic decor calls for something familiar and possibly on-trend. Terrariums and succulents are very popular right now and, while they’re easy to care for, a faux terrarium is even easier! Plants suit decor in casual and formal spaces quite well, too. The key to making this collection of items work was finding things with varied textures but in similar shades of green.
Materials
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1 clear glass vase
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1 bag green & natural potpourri
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1 bag bright green reindeer moss
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2 faux succulents
How We Made It
We poured about a third of the bag of potpourri into the vase, then placed about half of the reindeer moss on top of the potpourri. (Chopsticks were useful for arranging the moss into a nice layer.) We pushed the spikey faux succulent into the filling and arranged the leaves into a natural-looking placement. (Two succulents made the faux terrarium look cramped, so we returned one a got a dollar back!)
Rustic Decor Style Vase $4 +tax
Rustic decor is a bit rough and tumble, but not chaotic. There’s not anything flashy about it, but it still deserves some decorative pieces for interest. What better than some shiny smooth river rocks and some jute twine? The key to making these items work was keeping it super simple and pairing opposing textures: sleek rocks and coarse twine.
Materials
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1 clear glass vase
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1 bag of river rocks
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1 roll of jute twine
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craft glue
How We Made It
We placed the entire bag of rocks into the vase. (Rather than pouring, we filled by the handful to avoid breaking the glass.) Then we wrapped the jute twine around the neck of the vase and used a tiny dot of craft glue on the end of the twine to keep it from unraveling. It needed a little something more, so we glued one rock to the outside and tied some twine around it for more visual interest.
Farmhouse Decor Style (Interactive) Vase $4 +tax
Farmhouse decor is probably the easiest to imagine and recreate, especially since stores are well stocked with that theme in mind. So, this vase wasn’t exactly the plan, but it turned out to be super fun and family friendly! It also took about 5 minutes to make. The key to making these items work? Natural wood game pieces and plain white yarn are classically farmhouse kinds of things. As a bonus, these blocks are decorative and still completely play-with-able!
Materials
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1 clear glass vase
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1 game of mini tower blocks
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1 skein of white yarn
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craft glue
How We Made It
We poured the wooden blocks into the vase. Then we wrapped the yard around the neck of the vase and used a tiny dot of craft glue on the end of the yarn to keep it from unraveling. We tied an extra length of yarn around the neck and knotted it for some added visual interest.
Modern Decor Style Vase $4 +tax
Modern decor is typically clean and sleek. It’s often black and white or fairly masculine in its presentation so this vase needed to be something other than kitschy but not boring. These items were a gamble, but the springy gold and black coils on the headband had potential. The key to making these items work was sticking to neutral colors but bringing in some sparkle for interest.
Materials
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1 clear glass vase
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1 roll buffalo plaid ribbon
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1 graduation headband
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black nail polish
How We Made It
First, we painted the lip of the vase with the black nail a polish just to give it something different. Then, we cut the coils off of the headband and then layered them individually inside the vase, alternating black and gold as we saw fit. The ribbon seemed to be too busy, so instead of using it as a feature, we stuffed it inside of the coils so they would stay pressed around the inside of the glass. Tongs were the tool of choice for arranging all of the pieces because the coils definitely wanted to spring into action at every turn.
(CAUTION: This may not be a piece to display within reach of children. Once it’s assembled, touching it could lead to a burst of metallic coils sort of like a modern Snakes in a Can joke. Except not funny because it’ll take quite a bit longer to put them back in.)
Casual Comfort Decor Style Vase $6 +tax
Somewhat like Rustic Decor, Casual Comfort decor can be a bit rough around the edges, but it’s thoughtful. It’s also comfortable, friendly, and organic like Farmhouse decor, but breezier and brighter. The key to making these items work was a beachy theme of aqua blue, white, and sandy tan.
Materials
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1 clear glass vase
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1 bag white filler pebbles
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1 bag blue filler pebbles
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white nail polish
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tan nail polish
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dish scrub pads
How We Made It
We started by painting wave-like shapes around the mouth of the vase using the nail polishes. It took quite a few layers to get mostly-opaque colors and because the thick layers didn’t dry between coats, our idea to rough up the design with the scrub pads didn’t go as planned. We had a sticky mess, but it is distressed-looking. Nevertheless, we then poured in the blue pebbles and held the vase at an angle to get that wavy look before pouring the white pebbles on top. As a decorative filler piece on a bookshelf or something, we think it brings a breezy Casual Comfort vibe even it isn’t our masterpiece.
A little creativity and a tiny bit of elbow grease are all it took to turn a few $1 items into some pretty seriously cute decorations! Next time you see a glaring lack of decor somewhere in your home, you can try getting a little crafty, too. For a just a few bucks and a few minutes of time, your creativity may leave you feeling like a million dollars.
