4 Upcycled Christmas Decorations That Are Easy to Make

I went through my thrift store stash and pulled out some easy but beautiful items to flip into upcycled Christmas decorations. I hope these Christmas upcycling ideas inspire you to get out to your local thrift store or to find your dated home decor and flip it for the holidays.

Upcycling a spindle

1. Spindle to Christmas tree holder

I cleaned this up and took off the dated fabric bow and color.

DIY Christmas tree stand

I painted over the maroon with red paint and added clear wax. Then I added a simple bow with modern fabric. I topped it with a bottle brush tree.

Creating ornaments out of resin

2. Bland trays to glittering plaques

I mixed resin and poured it into a mold of Christmas ornament shapes. It takes 10 minutes for the resin to firm up. They do dry white. I will pop them out of the mold. This is an Iron Orchid Design Mold and they are very detailed.

Gluing the resin shapes to the trays

I glued the resin ornament shapes onto the trays. Then I painted one entire tray and ornaments green with Monet’s Garden by DIY Paint and the other with Prairie Grey by DIY Paint.

Adding detail to the ornaments with gold wax

I detailed the ornaments and tray edges with gold wax using my fingers.

DIY plaques

Here are the finished DIY plaques.

Cleaning up the wooden sign

3. Wooden hook to rustic sign

I cleaned up this wooden hook by sanding it and pulling off the pegs.

Covering up the image with primer and gray paint

I covered the image that was left with gray paint as a primer.

Adding a paint inlay design

I painted a linen white chalk paint over the gray to create a clean canvas. Then I transferred a paint inlay design, also from Iron Orchid Designs, over the freshly painted surface. Remember, paint inlay designs require wet paint and water to set the print into the wood.

Adding dark wax

Then, here’s a boo-boo. I decided to take the look too far by adding dark wax! Not a good look, so beware, don’t do what I did.

Old birdhouse for the DIY

4. Dingy birdhouse to modern fresh birdhouse

I spray-painted this old birdhouse white and began painting away to update it.

Painting the birdhouse

I gave it new life with an Antique Green by FolkArt.

Using gold to create a stained glass look

I stenciled a stained glass look onto the windows using gold.

Upcycled Christmas decorations

I added dark wax on the spindles, but you don’t need to do that.


Upcycled Christmas decorations

Let me know what you think of these upcycled Christmas flips. What’s the best item you’ve found to upcycle for Christmas decor?


Also, tell me where you like to shop for thrift finds that you can use to upcycle for Christmas. My favorite place is my local Savers thrift store, but I still love garage sales and Salvation Army stores.

Comments
Join the conversation
 1 comment
Next