The One Thing Interior Designers Always Buy At Dollar Tree

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This versatile designer hidden gem has serious potential.

Dollar Tree might not be the first place you would expect a professional interior designer to shop for home decor, but as some of our favorite Southern designers will tell you, gold can be struck anywhere—and at any price range.

Part of the job as an interior designer is sticking to a budget, and decorating a home certainly isn’t cheap. So, while dollar store finds actually cost a bit more than a buck these days, the potential for savings is still enough to excite the pros. When it comes to saving money on home goods, however, be thoughtful in where you choose to pinch pennies. Staple furniture, for example, needs to be sturdy and long-lasting, so it might be a place to invest rather than save. Instead, designers look for discounted prices on the details, and there’s one accessory in particular that Dollar Tree has to offer.

Strolling through the doors of their respective local Dollar Trees, our designers have their eyes on the prize: vases. Dollar Tree has them in troves: tall and short, colorful and clear, embellished and basic—all for $1.25. And they’ve certainly caught the eyes of interior designers across the South. Both Cassie Tonsmeire, a designer based in Birmingham Alabama, and Angela Wilson Lee, principal designer of Wilson Lee Interiors in Richmond, Virginia, turn to Dollar Tree for staple vases to use in a variety of ways across the home.

BUY IT: $1.25; dollartree.com

While both designers recommend Dollar Tree’s vases, they differ in their favorite ones. The inventory is always changing, but while Tonsmeire gravitates toward the clear, straightforward vessels, Wilson Lee prefers the colorful, decorative ones. As far as we’re concerned, this difference in opinion just means more designer inspiration for us! Here’s how to style Dollar Tree vases like a professional.

Stun With Simple Staples

In our humble opinion, no home is complete without some greenery. No matter the time of year, our homes are sure to be glowing with vines, leaves, and flowers—some real, others fake, we’ll admit. The trick is arranging them.

While some blooms stun in tall, slim vases, others need shorter vessels or bud vases. A collection of vases is needed to keep up with every floral whim around the house. While Dollar Tree also sells faux florals, Tonsmeire trusts this affordable hotspot for her preferred style of every vase necessary for a complete collection.

Clear vases are her go-to in a variety of styles to suit an array of arrangements: “tall and short, square or round,” she says, “for flower styling anywhere!”

In Tonsmeire’s home, Dollar Tree clear vessels aren’t limited to florals, though. She also adores the clear votives as centerpieces for styling tables. Use these larger glass vases to store candles or stick to the classics and fill them with a bursting bouquet.

Arrange Unexpectedly

While Wilson Lee is also a fan of nature and flowers around the house, she prefers to style them differently, embracing vessels that are bold in color, style, and size.

“Integrating live greenery into our interiors project is a passion of mine. Live plants clean and freshen the air while introducing beautiful colors and dimensions,” Wilson Lee says. “I used vessels from the Dollar Tree to add a classic and unexpected touch.”

She chose miniature, colored vessels to fill with water and fresh twigs of rosemary “for a pretty pop of color and an aromatic scent,” she tells us. The colorful arrangements can be displayed together, solo, or with other decor. “The color jars with rosemary also work well lined up on a rectangle cocktail table when you choose a color that compliments your palette,” she says.

In addition to colorful Dollar Tree vases, Wilson Lee recommends their mini ceramic pots for hosting real or faux greenery. A sprouting ceramic pot here and there across your home is a pretty, subtle addition, while styling multiple together will create a stunning display for those who are maximalists at heart.

Whether Tonsmeire’s simple and sophisticated vases or Wilson Lee’s bold and creative vessels are more your style, $1.25 vases guarantee that decorating like an interior designer won’t break the bank. 

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Read the original article on Southern Living.