It is possible to do home decor on a budget!

It’s actually super easy to create beautiful home decor on a budget, and lately I’ve been having some fun shopping our local “op shops” – if you’re in Australia, you know exactly what I’m talking about, but for my North American friends – “thrift stores” or charity shops in the UK – same thing as an Op Shop. I believe the word came from the contraction of “opportunity shop” – perhaps as a place where people have an opportunity to purchase items at a lower price, at the same time, giving them the opportunity to support a charity.

Anyway, if you follow my Instagram stories, most Wednesdays (Aus time zone), I’ve been dropping in to a few local op shops to see if I can find things to give you creative ideas for home decor on a budget, including some furniture “pickin” tips along the way. I’ve created a “Highlight” on my Instagram Profile dedicated to Op Shopping where you can see some of the fun I get up to. Oh, and if you’d like to tag me in any of your own op shop finds, use the hashtag #irestoreopshopfinds on Instagram – I’d love to feature some of your submissions in my stories!

So in this post, I’ll show you some of the things I’ve found along the way, and give you some ideas for your own home decor on a budget.

Re-vamping a Simple Pot

An easy makeover, any ceramic or terracotta plant pot can be up-cycled using a bit of paint and optional finishes. This pot pictured below came like this from our local Salvo’s store:

For this easy makeover, I used Fusion’s Coal Black to paint the entire pot, then finished with Miss Mustard Seed’s Zinc Wax to give it a metallic, kind of gun metal finish. I love how it turned out:

Update a Jewellery Box

This next item is actually a Samantha Wills jewellery box that I also found at our local Salvos Store op shop. It’s cute, but I love the white shabby, chippy look and figured it’s still a bit of a trend in my neck of the woods, so decided to do that.

I painted this one with Fusion’s Champlain, then sanded a little to distress the paint back to the wood in some areas (mainly the edges). Then I took a brush and used a dry brush technique to hit the highlights using the colour Casement (a brighter white).

Don’t you love the top on this?

Transform a Mirror

Here’s an old mirror I came across one time, I’ve taped it up and you can see the before and after pics here below.

To show a step by step of this amazing transformation using some appliques and one of my favourite GLAZING techniques, check out the full tutorial HERE.

A Tiny Stool Makeover

Another Op Shop item I tend to love, are little stools of any kind! This is one I found with a tapestry on it that was pretty dirty and worn (although it doesn’t look too bad in this pic). I refinished this one a few years ago and you can see the full post about that makeover HERE.

Upholstering stools is about as straightforward as you can probably get as far as “smaller” upholstery jobs go. Usually requiring just a new fabric, and sometimes extra cushioning, but with a staple gun, you can change out a stool like this quite easily.

Here’s the result from using a simple drop cloth fabric:

So there you go – these are just some of the things I’ve changed up a bit using items found in thrift stores/op shops/charity places – whatever you like to call them in your neck of the woods.

I’d love you to join me over on Instagram … here are some of my current stories below to show you a bit of personal, behind the scenes type fun that I get up to on my Instagram account. Most of my stories are related to furniture, DIY, antiques, collectables, showing you my Shop space at Camp Hill Antique Centre each week, tips on painting, etc.

Other times, I give you glimpse into my personal life, where I’m hanging out, a look in my workshop or things around my house. You can click the video play button on these stories to watch them here, or head over to my Instagram account and click on my picture in the top left corner.