Everyone on a tight budget knows that a thrift store or garage sale can be a goldmine when you’re pinching pennies and trying to make your dollars stretch. You walk through those big name home decor stores and look longingly at all the gorgeous pieces. But even on sale, you just can’t justify the price.

I get it.

“But the stuff at the thrift store and garage sales are all ugly, outdated colors that don’t go with my decor.” I hear you.

Here’s the thing….let’s look PAST the nasty color, ok? I’ll show you what I mean.

*This post contains affiliate links for your convenience and is sponsored by HomeRight. See my full disclosure here.*

Why Shopping at a Thrift Store is Brilliant

Yes, you’re right – you’ll find butt-ugly things at the thrift store.

Thrift Store Update How-To

• Find ugly-colored item (vase, planter, lamp, bowl, urn, chandelier) in which you like the shape
• Choose spray paint color that makes your heart smile
• Set up your HomeRight small spray shelter (helps so you don’t accidentally spray your grass, the dog, or the kids)
• Place HomeRight turntable in the middle of spray shelter (This is the tool that will have you doing a happy dance)
• Spray away!
• Stand back and laugh at how ridiculously EASY and FAST that was!
• Now the hard part….wait for it to dry. 😉

See?? Told you it was easy! For all of us visual learners, here it is in photo format. <3

Once your small spray shelter is popped up (yes, it literally “pops” up when you take it out of the bag), grab your handy dandy turntable and set it inside. The turntable will save your fingers from paint and your projects from finger smudges when you try to move it before it’s completely dry – not that I would ever do such a thing. Ahem.

Also, please forgive the gold spray paint already on my spray shelter from the DIY sunburst clock in my $100 home office makeover.

Then proceed as follows:

Ugly thrift store planter, meet your saving grace.

(In the photo below you can see that I had already used the turntable a few times before this project.) I had to make sure I loved it before I shared it with you. 🙂

Spray and Turn-

Laugh at how crazy-fast and easy that was and relish the fact that your hands are NOT covered in spray paint.

Set aside to dry.

Repeat.

At this point, a huge storm was moving in and I had to HUSTLE to get everything brought inside. In the process, I realized that the turntable also makes it *really* easy to move your not-quite-dry piece. Another reason to love this little gadget.

From Blah to Beautiful!

Once your pieces are dry, you’re ready to use them however you see fit! I chose to plant some succulents in one and some “fairy garden” plants in the other. Playing in the dirt is so fun- 😀

See that one little closed-up-tight plant? My boys are calling it “the shy plant”. They touch it’s leaves and watch it close up tight. Then, after a while, the leaves open back up (or as the boys say, “it’s gets brave”)…just in time for them to play with it again. LOL! It’s a fun little plant…we’ll see if it survives the “love” and exercise it’s going to get in this household. 😀

The succulents are always so pretty with their gorgeous shades and textures. And if you don’t want to bother with keeping real succulents alive, there are some pretty faux ones here.

I’ve played around with where I’ll put these – even on my dining room table…

but when all is said and done, I think they’ll keep me company here in my home office. This room gets tons of light and they’ll make me smile every time I see them.

I might even have to keep my own fingers off the “shy plant”. 😉

So keep your eyes open at those garage sales and thrift stores! That ugly-colored piece could be turned into something you’ll love with just a few minutes of time and a couple simple tools to make the job easier.