There are so many fun farmhouse style decor possibilities at the dollar store if you just use a little creativity! This dollar store trophy planter is one of my favourite ones yet!
I’m clearly not making it to the dollar store enough lately. I’ve actually probably only made it in there once or twice a year for the past few years so when I was in there a few weeks ago to pick up the moss for my moss topiaries I was completely surprised and distracted from my mission as I wandered up and down those aisles. One of the things I found was this cheap plastic trophy which I saw and knew immediately was destined to become this dollar store trophy planter that I’m sharing with you today. 🙂
No matter how big my home decor budget grows, my favourite ideas are always the ones where you take something unexpected, usually something free or very inexpensive, and turn it into something beautiful. When I find a blog that shares those types of projects, those are the ones that I always find myself signing up to follow right away. There’s just something so fun about the creativity that goes into making over something like this!
Well, I have to admit that maybe this isn’t the most creative dollar store home decor project ever, but I definitely love the way it turned out.
So here’s how I did !
How to Make a Dollar Store Trophy Planter
I started out by removing the label and the sticker off the front of the trophy. If your sticker doesn’t come off cleanly, my trick for removing labels from jars works well. You can use the essential oil trick as well, just make sure that you remove all of the oil residue with a paper towel dipped in rubbing alcohol before you move on to the next step: Painting!
I went out to the least breezy spot that I could find and applied two light coats of Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint, letting it dry for about 10 minutes between coats. If, after your final coat, you’re finding that your trophy seems to be taking forever to dry, you can use my trick for drying spray paint projects instantly.
Looks pretty great so far, right? Oh, the magic of paint! 🙂
Finishing Details on the Dollar Store Trophy Planter
To make the trophy look a bit aged and a bit less flat, I very lightly brushed a little light grey chalk paint over the details of the trophy and in a few other spots, then just wiped the excess off with my finger.
As a final touch, I added this cute little number plaque (or plaquette as the package said) to the front. They come with little pins, but I just hot glued it on because I didn’t want to risk cracking that precious plastic trophy. Ha!
Yup, I’m definitely going to have to find a use for the other five little plaques that were in this package. I’m kind of excited about how cute they are. 🙂
You could definitely use this as an actual planter for succulents, but I just added in a little dollar store succulent to keep the cheapo theme going strong. It’s funny because I think this dollar store stuff actually looks so much more life-like than some of the more expensive faux greenery that you can buy from craft stores a lot of the time. I’ve actually had people ask me multiple times for the name of different plants in photos from around my house and I’ve had to tell them “uhh.. a dollar store plant?” 🙂
To “plant” my succulent, I just filled my trophy with moss and tucked my succulent right in. I realize that moss and succulents usually grow in totally different conditions, but they looked right together in this context, so I went with it!
Kennedy and I have been taking turns handing this trophy to each other at random times and saying “Congratulations, you got 13th place!” The package of plaquettes just had a bunch of random numbers in it and 13 was the lowest, so that’s why I used it. I guess it will make a great Halloween decoration too now! 🙂
Look for these little trophies in the kids’ toys section of your dollar store if you’d like to make your own Dollar Store Trophy Planter!
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.