I Made $500 Worth of Custom Designer Furniture for Under $25! (4 Luxury Home Decor DIYs)

Hello Creative Gems, welcome to Creativity. Today we're taking a bunch of simple dollar store planters, just like the ones I'm showing you right here, and we're going to transform them completely. We're going to make not one, not two, but four entirely different side table looks. Now, as you can see, I gathered a huge variety of planters for this project. We have some taller options, some shorter ones, some with deep vertical ridges, and other with clean horizontal lines. They all feature very unique shapes, sizes, textures, and colorings. It is going to be such a fun experiment trying to mix, match, and assemble them to build our custom side tables. You won't believe how high-end these look by the end, and they cost next to nothing to make. And word of warning, I'll also share with you some of the boo-boos and mistakes I made along the way, and I'll also show you how I managed to address the problems that I ran into along the way. So to start, we're going to take these two grey round planters. They have a stacked or bubbled look that is quite unique, and the external surface have white specks. Inside is nice, and overall, these planters are solid but lightweight, if that makes any sense. The first thing we'll do is paint the outside. Since we're going for a neutral luxury look, I've chosen to paint these planters a bright white. I'm using some leftover house paint that I saved from a past rental project, so you'll notice that the paint is quite thick and very good quality. That actually will be perfect because we want to be able to cover the original colouring of these planters so you can no longer see the white specks and the grey colouring. I'm also using a rather wide paintbrush since we have a considerable amount of surface area to paint. Once the first coat is completed and fully dried, I'll go back in with a light second coat just to make sure we have a nice even coverage for the entire planter. And now that the planters are painted and completely dry, we're going to go back in to embellish them. I've got some silver chrome card trim here that we will apply to the grooves of these two planters. This card trim is actually self-adhesive, but since I'm not sure how well it will adhere to the painted planter, we're going to go back in with a tiny bit of hot glue to the back of the card trim just for that extra hold. And I'm actually going to apply the glue just to the two ends of the card trim so I don't risk getting messy hot glue all over the place because, as you know, it's not always easy to clean off excess hot glue that has cooled and stuck onto surfaces. So once I have this first piece secured, I'll go back in and secure the second piece. And as you can already see, this chrome card trim is already upscaling the look of the planter with its reflective mirror-like finish. So while I finish up trimming out these planters, I would like to take a moment to thank you for tuning into today's craft projects. And if you're new here on my channel, I'm Sandy. If you enjoy glam home decor and DIY crafts on a budget, please let me know by hitting the subscribe button. And if you like what you see today, please give me a thumbs up as well so YouTube will recommend my channel to other viewers like you. Okay, we've got both planters trimmed out, and notice how I have the seam lines perfectly aligned. That way, when the table is finished, you can easily turn the side with the seams to the back and keep it completely hidden. What we want to do now is stack these two planters together by securing the two bottoms together. Again, we want to make sure to line up the seams all on the same side. To secure the two planters together, we're going to go in with some hot glue because hot glue bonds these two plastic materials extremely well. But here's a little secret. I actually didn't line these two planters up perfectly the first time, so when I tried to secure the two together, they were slightly lopsided. The good news is that I caught that early and was able to break apart the two planters and re-glue them together. You can see in the top right corner of the screen that some of the paint also got removed, so I had a bit of touch-up to do as well. But as you can see, it all worked out, and now I'm painting the seams to fill up the slight gap created by the rounded bottoms of the two planters. And the great thing is, adding this paint will also act as an additional adhesive to keep the two planters secured together. And you can see now, these two planters look almost like one single piece. We're also going to add a fifth strip of the silver chrome card trim to the middle, which will really make these planters look like one piece. But before we do that, I've decided that I want to add some subtle texture to these planters. We've got some white chunky glitter from the dollar store that I'm pouring into a little container. To that, we can add some Mod Podge, but today we're actually going to add some white acrylic paint also from the dollar store instead. The paint will act like an adhesive, so when it cures, the glitter will be stuck on as if we had used Mod Podge. But here is where we're going to apply a bit of guesswork. Depending on how much texture you want on the planters, you can add more or less of the glitter. And if you added too much glitter, then go in and add some more paint. Once you're happy with the consistency, we can start painting the glitter paint mixture onto the planters. Now I know some of you are going to call me out in the comments and tell me I should have applied this glitter paint mixture before applying the car trim. And you are 100% correct. But honestly, I didn't even know that I wanted to add texture until this very moment. Sometimes I start with a rough idea for my craft projects, and then after that, the finer details don't come to fruition until I'm right in the middle of crafting. In fact, comment down below with the words side table. And let me know, are you a meticulous planner who maps out every single design detail ahead of time? Or do you prefer to just wing it? Or maybe you're like me and have a general idea of the project, but like to pivot and make small adjustments here and there along the way. Let me know down in the comments. And with that said, once everything is nice and dry, the fifth strip of silver chrome car trim can be applied right over the center seam. And don't forget to line up the seams for the car trims so they can all face the back when we place the table into our living space. Then we'll set these planters aside while we work on building out the rest of the table base with another planter. So this third planter is rather large, so naturally it will sit right at the very bottom. And to make sure it matches the rest of the table base, we're going to go in with more white paint. But since this planter has these beautiful geometric ridges, we're going to play up the design. We'll leave the bottom section unpainted for now because we're going to come back later to accentuate those sharp triangular tips. So to really make these sharp geometric ridges pop, I'm going in with a metallic silver chrome marker. We want to carefully trace along the border where the white paint meets the unpainted base. This will create a striking high-end metallic accent look that will instantly highlight those sharp triangular peaks. Now tracing a straight line across these uneven geometric ridges can be tricky, so you'll notice here a quick DIY hack that I'm using. I'm using a small scrap piece of rigid foam board as a straight edge. Since it's sturdy but has a little give, I can press it flat against the planter to trace a perfectly crisp, clean border with my chrome marker. So while I work on this, I want to ask you all a question. Who wants to win some free craft supplies? Comment down below with the word SCITABLE and let me know if you all would like to participate in a free giveaway. We're talking free gift cards that you can use to purchase your own craft supplies or even home decor if you want. All you need to do is make sure you're subscribed to my newsletter because that is where I'll be doing the giveaways. So if you haven't already, make sure you go to creativity.substack.com or scan the on-screen QR code and sign up for free. That's creativity.substack.com Currently I'm nearing 200 subscribers to my free newsletter and once I reach about 500, I'll announce the contest details in the newsletter. So make sure you sign up, share the link with your crafting besties and let's unlock this free giveaway together. And so with that said, here's what the planter looks like with the silver metallic ridge design. The foam board really helped me get the straight edges drawn in perfectly, but you know what? We need to go back in with our glitter paint concoction. And because I know some of you are going to ask, I'm going to show you a couple of different glitter options you can use. The large bottle in my left hand is a pure white version and the one in my right hand has a slight iridescent finish to the glitter. And really either will do, but since I want to keep a dollar store budget for the side table we're making, we'll go with the bottle with the iridescent glitter. Okay, by the way guys, I made another boo-boo. Did anyone figure out what I did wrong? This is what the painted planter looks like with the white glitter. Because I used Mod Podge, the mixture dried completely clear and the underlying iridescent shimmer from the glitter is peeking through. But unfortunately this pearlescent finish does not match the pure white finish of the other planters. So to fix this, we're going to go back over it with a coat of our dollar store white acrylic paint so everything matches perfectly. And by the way, if you would like to stock up on any of the craft embellishments you see me using on my craft channel and you're not able to get out to a dollar store, make sure to check the description box for links to all my favorite craft supplies that are easily available online. And if you're having trouble finding what you're looking for, feel free to message me here over on my blog or on this YouTube channel and let me know what you're looking for so I can point you in the right direction. You can also scan the on-screen QR code and that will also take you straight to my curated list of craft supplies. And now that we have fixed that little mishap, we're ready to finish embellishing this planter. So to further emphasize those triangular tips, we're going to go back in and trim them out with these silver chrome beads. Yes, these are like those Mardi Gras beads, but you can sometimes find these at the Dollar Tree as well. And if not, you can also refer to my curated list of craft supplies in the description box. So while I work on this, I want to give you all a quick reminder. If you love having a physical step-by-step guide next to you while you craft or while you're out shopping for craft supplies, I've officially moved all of my written and tutorial guides over to my brand new blog located at creativity.substack.com. That's C-R-E-A-T-V-D-I-Y.substack.com. And currently, there are now almost 300 free tutorials waiting for you, with new ones added every single day. When you join my free weekly newsletter, you'll also get a hand-picked tutorial sent straight to your inbox, along with exclusive craft supply deals and handy hacks that don't always make it into these videos. Plus, we also have an amazing new chat where you can share crafting tips and share photos of your own finished craft projects for us all to see. It's completely free to join and takes just two seconds to join. The link is right down in the description box below, or you can simply scan the QR code on your screen right now. Okay, this base planter is pretty much done and I have now moved it over to the floor where I'm going to place it upside down with the bottom of the planter facing upwards. That way, we can start assembling the base for our table. We'll start by applying some glue to the bottom of the planter. I'm going in with my new favorite glue, which is Weld Bond. This glue is super strong, even though it's not really considered a super glue. But it bonds practically any material and it also dries clear and has absolutely no smell whatsoever. In between the sections where there's no Weld Bond applied, we're going back in with some hot glue because the Weld Bond, although it cures pretty quickly, still takes a few minutes for it to start getting tacky. So the hot glue will just cut down the waiting time. And then in goes the other two planters we started with right on top. We want to make sure they're perfectly centered, so make your adjustments if you need to right Next, we're going to go back in with the silver chrome beads and create a bit of a collar around the planters. Not only will the beads hide the seams, but they'll match the base planter for a beautiful design detail. And I know some of you are not fans of these beads, but like I have mentioned in my previous tutorials, these beads have a mirror-like finish that matches a lot of my silver and mirrored themed décor pieces. And plus, they're super easy to work with when trying to hide seams and gaps. Of course, if you're not a fan, skip these beads and maybe choose other trims or ribbons. That said, here's what our table base looks like now. But to complete the look, we need a tabletop. So for that, we're going to go back into the studio and custom make one from scratch. In fact, we're actually going to make two, but let's start with this round 12-inch wooden pallet I found at the Dollar Tree. It's a little on the thin side and slightly warped, but that's what you get from a dollar store. So to make this wood piece much more sturdy and stiff, we're going to place this 12-inch round mirror plate right on top. This mirror is pretty thick and heavy and made of really good quality glass, so it will help weigh down the tabletop. To adhere our two pieces together, again, I'm going to use Weld Bond. I absolutely love crafting with this adhesive lately because it completely is odorless and bonds almost any surface without leaving any stains. We want to be generous with the application, but stay slightly away from the edges so nothing oozes out. And this time, we're going to skip the hot glue because it tends to dry in thick, hard clumps, which can create unwanted gaps between the two pieces. So I'm going to leave this overnight, and to help things out, I'm also going to add a few clamps to make sure the wood lies completely flat against the glass piece. The next day, all the glue has dried, and now we're removing the clamps. Now we're going to clean up these outer edges because we don't actually want to see the natural wood finish. Now normally, I would go straight to my silver chrome card trim, but this time, I decided I want to really bling things out, so we're going to apply this strip of silver rhinestone trim to the sides instead. This trim can be cut to size, so we're just going to measure out the number of rows we'll need, and then it looks like three rows will be perfect, so we'll go ahead and cut the trim. Once we have what we need, we can remove the wax backing from the trim and start applying it because this trim is self-adhesive. The trim is also super flexible and also has a slight stretch to it, so it will be really easy to contour the trim to the round shape of the tabletop. What we're going to do next is build a simple bracket system underneath the tabletop to help prevent the table from sliding around when we place it onto the base. So we'll flip this over to expose the underside. First, I'm going to cut out a small circular shape with some scrap paper. Once cut, I'll use it as a template to sketch out a circle into the center of the wood palette. Next, I'm going to take four Dollar Tree wooden Jenga blocks and place them around the circle so that the blocks form a square pattern. To adhere the blocks to the wood palette, again, we'll use Weld Bond on each of the blocks. Once they're secured, it only takes about 15 to 20 minutes for the Weld Bond to cure enough that we can turn the tabletop over. Now I've got the planter we worked on earlier stacked on the floor, and the final piece for the base that will hold the tabletop is to add this Dollar Tree ice bucket to the top. This ice bucket will add a bit of extra height to our base, and it also matches the silver chrome card trim we added to the planters because it has a nice mirror-like finish that will further enhance the look of our side table. We can even use the ice bucket as secret storage for small items if we wanted to. And now, with the tabletop applied, here is the stunning finished look for our side table number one. Taking a closer look at this gorgeous mirrored glass tabletop, the concentric ripple design looks incredibly modern against the silver and chrome detailing. Moving down the base, those painted planters with the chrome trim along with the sharp silver peaks at the base tie everything together. You'd never guess this high-end looking piece of furniture started as basic dollar store plastic planters. And don't forget, the ice bucket provides secret storage space underneath the tabletop as well. Now I know I promised another tabletop, but we're going to save that part of the tutorial for a little later. What we're going to do now is start designing and building out the base for our second side table with this planter. I've got this other large planter turned upside down here, and we're embellishing it with some more silver trim. This one has a resin backing, and it is not self-adhesive, so we're going in with some hot glue. And while I work on this, let's chat a bit. I love connecting with you all, so comment down below and let me know where in the world you are all tuning in from today, so I can give you a shout out and say hello back. Also, let me know if you are a regular viewer, or if today is your very first time finding my channel. I'd love to offer you a personal welcome down in the comments. Now I want to turn your attention to another issue I ran into with the side table build out. I originally applied this trim to the base of the planter, but I didn't bring it to the very bottom edge. So I ended up tearing the trim off, scraping away the hot glue clumps and residue, and now we're going to redo the trimming because I want to add one more of this silver rhinestone and glass trim here first. It's purely for aesthetic reasons, but it was really bothering me, so I took the time out to remove the other trim so I could relocate it. And now that I have all the silver rhinestone and glass trim placed where I want them, I can now go back in and reapply the other trim to the very bottom edge of this planter. I'll speed up this part since it's pretty boring and repetitive. Next I have another Dollar Tree planter. Actually, this one is more of a vase because it's pretty tall and narrow. This one is going to be stacked on top of the white planter that we just embellished. But because it's so lightweight, we're going to fill it with bags of these Dollar Tree glass gems. It won't matter what colour, shape or size the gems are because no one is going to see them. And in fact, if you have pebbles or even a bucket of cement that you can put into this vase, go on right ahead. The idea is to give our base some weight so it doesn't fall over if we place anything heavy on the tabletop. With the vase filled to the top, I've moved it to the floor so I can show you how we're going to stack the planters to build the base for our second table. Since this vase has a nice lip at the opening, we're going to apply some of this Wellbond glue to it. The Wellbond glue, as I mentioned earlier, bonds pretty much everything from wood, tile, glass to foam and ceramics. It's super strong and it's fast drying, although not as quick as hot glue. So to make sure we get some instant bondage happening, I'm also going to go back in with a tiny bit of hot glue in the areas where I did not apply any Wellbond. Then we just place the large planter on top. And I don't know if the camera is picking it up clearly, but you can kind of see through the bottom of the planter, which will help you make sure that the vase is centred to the bottom of the planter. Then we wait for maybe an hour or so to allow the Wellbond to cure and then we can flip the whole thing over because ultimately we want the large planter to be at the bottom so it provides a really sturdy base for our side table. And now we'll go back in with more embellishments. Here I'm going to add some silver chrome beads to hide the seams between the planter and the vase. I actually debated on whether to paint the tall narrow vase since it's a cream colour rather than white like the planter, but in the end I decided that the cream colour actually provides a nice subtle contrast that looks quite pretty, especially in a room decorated with cream coloured pieces as well. So as we move outwards from the base past the upside down tall vase, we now have this platform here to place another smaller vase on top, which will then give this side table some additional height. Some of you may recognize this small white vase from the Dollar Tree. I actually hauled a few of them home but never really knew what to do with them besides placing flowers in them. But now this vase is going to become part of the base for our side table and because of its hourglass shape, it's really going to accentuate the luxury look for our side table. So the vase will sit on this platform here, but notice how there's a slight dip in the centre. Since it's not perfectly flat, it may be a challenge for the other vase to sit securely without it sliding off centre. So my solution to that is to place a piece of cardboard just thick enough to close that gap. Everything is going to be glued down with some weld bond and a bit of hot glue so this piece of cardboard will not move. Then we just place the white vase on top with the opening facing upwards like so. As a finishing touch for the base, we're going to add some more silver rhinestone trim to hide the seams between the two vases. And if you want to get more fancy, go ahead and add a bit more trim like I'm going to do here. And adding extra embellishment serves two purposes. Not only does it completely hide any seams where the vases meet, it will instantly add a ton of high-end visual interest into the overall design of the base. As you can see, wrapping this trim perfectly outlines the unique contours of the vase and breaks up the solid white background colour. When you're making furniture out of budget materials like these, the secret to making them look genuinely expensive is focusing on the tiny transitional details like this. I'm making sure everything is pulled tight and sits completely flush before pressing down to secure the bond. I'll finish by wrapping a final piece of trim around the neck of the smaller vase and then we'll be ready to take a look at our next step, which is to make our second tabletop. I found this round tray at the Dollar Tree and this one has a little ridge around the edge so it can be for resin pouring. But today we're not going to go get that fancy because making a resin tabletop is actually a whole other tutorial for another day. We'll start by adorning the outside edge with this beautiful silver rhinestone trim. This trim actually has real glass pieces that will completely upscale the look of the tabletop once we're done. And because it's self-adhesive, it's super fast to apply and we won't have to mess with any glue for this step. The trim is also very flexible, can be cut to size and it even has a tiny bit of stretch to it, which makes it very easy to conform to the round shape of this tray. Take a look at how pretty the trim is. And we'll apply the same trim along the inside framing as well, but we won't be doing that right away because we actually need to paint the rest of the tray first. Once again, to maintain a consistent look and feel for the design of our side table, we're going to paint this tray white. But of course, for those of you who need more than just white decor in your space, feel free to go in with a splash of color to really make the tabletop pop. I'm thinking a metallic silver or gold look would be nice. And for you brave souls out there, a glossy black finish might look very pretty as well. So while I paint this, I would love to take a quick second to know you all a bit more. To start off, where are you all tuning in from today? Go ahead and drop your state, province or country in the comments down below. I'm also always amazed to see how far these videos travel and where everyone is watching from. Also, if you are a fellow crafter, you definitely have to let me know what specific project you have been working on lately. Is it something similar to this or are you trying out a completely different craft? I am always on the hunt for new inspiration to add to my project lineup. And I would absolutely love it to hear what is sitting on your craft table right now. Let me know down below and I'll also reply back with a shout out. With that said, I've got my first coat of paint on and as soon as it dries, I'm going to go back in with a second coat so we can achieve a bright white finish for the tabletop. Fast forward and now we're back with the tray fully painted. I left the ridge area with a single coat because we will be trimming out that area, but you can see the rest of the tray is a nice bright white, the perfect clean canvas for a special design that I'll be adding to the center in a little while. But before we do that, I want to frame out our tray with some gorgeous glass gems. Because these gems are self-adhesive, we can apply the entire strip incredibly easy. Plus, since these gems are made of real glass, you'll really be able to see those beautiful facets catching and throwing the sunlight. In fact, these glass gems are one of my favorite embellishments to craft with because they really help amplify the luxury look of my home decor craft pieces. They're a bit hard to find because I find the seller tends to run out frequently, but I have found a few places to purchase these from. So if you are thinking of crafting with these gems, make sure you check the description box for the links to these beautiful gems. Look how pretty this tray has become! And the glass gems also help to give this tray some weight, which is important since we're going to be using this as a tabletop for our side table. Now we're going to go back in with another strip of the silver rhinestone trim and finish trimming out the inner frame of our tray. This trim will bring the whole tray together so that the inside frame of the tray matches the outer perimeter of the tray, giving a very nice cohesive look. Check that out! How pretty is that? Now for the center of the tray, I mentioned earlier that I have a special design in mind. Rather than drawing something, I decided to make things easier for myself by figuring out a way to incorporate this beautiful lace paper doily. This doily has a bright metallic gold finish, which we're going to transform into silver in a minute. But what I really like about this doily is the intricate design detail, which I think is going to look perfect incorporated into our tabletop. To transform this gold doily into a silver one with a high-end mirror-like finish, we're going to use this liquid chrome paint marker. If you've never used a chrome marker before, it is an absolute game-changer for DIY projects because the finish looks like real metallic plating, rather than just a matte silver paint. I'm going to carefully glide the marker over the raised lace details of the doily. As the liquid chrome flows onto the surface, you can see it instantly mask the original colour, replacing it with a brilliant reflective silver shine. It takes a little patience to get into all the intricate cutouts and grooves, but the luxurious final look is entirely worth the effort. Let's get this fully coated and then we'll leave it to dry. Once the doily is fully painted and then fully dried, the paint becomes permanent and then you'll be able to handle it without the paint bleeding out. What we're going to do is place this doily into the centre of the tray. To make sure the doily stays in place, we're going to apply a good amount of Mod Podge, first to the back of the doily and then we'll work on the front. Now make sure you get every square inch of the doily because we don't want any of the edges to lift. Here I'm using a wide, soft, bristled paintbrush, but if you have a foam brush, you can use that as well. You'll notice that the sides of the doily will start to curl with the Mod Podge applied to the underside, but no need to worry about that because once the doily is laid flat onto the tray, the Mod Podge will take hold and keep the doily laying flat without lifting. So what we're going to do is place the doily back onto the tray now and then we're going to aim for the centre and go back in with another couple of coats of Mod Podge applied right on top of the doily to seal it into place. But if you need to reposition the doily, you can also do that, but do it very carefully by lifting the edges off and then you can reposition the doily. In fact, you'll see I ended up having to do that many times before I finally got the doily right in the centre. And that's one of the beauties of using Mod Podge is that you have plenty of time to make adjustments before the Mod Podge fully dries. We'll also make sure we have a coat of Mod Podge applied to the rest of the tray's surface so that the entire tabletop surface will have a glossy finish and it will also be protected so you can place items onto it. Now I can actually feel that the Mod Podge has become pretty tacky, so I'm going to leave the doily as is. I think it's pretty centred at this point after making so many adjustments, so we'll leave this to dry for a couple of hours. In the meantime, since the Mod Podge is already tacky, it's safe to turn this tray over because as a final step for this tabletop, we're going to add a bracket system to the back of the tray so that when we place this tray onto the table base, the brackets will prevent the tabletop from accidentally slipping off. I got a small circle cut out from some scrap paper and in case you didn't notice, the circle actually matches the round opening of the small white vase that this tray will sit on. I've placed it in the centre of the tray that we turned over and now we're going to take four of these Dollar Tree wooden Jenga blocks and we'll assemble them around the circle like so. Once we have created a square pattern with the Jenga blocks, we can go back, secure each piece with some wood glue or in my case, some Weld Bond. And remember, less is more. I always have a really bad habit of going overboard with my glue and then I end up with messy excess glue oozing out everywhere that I have to wipe off. Once each piece is secured, it only takes about 15 minutes for the Weld Bond to cure enough that the blocks will not come off even when you turn the tray over. And with that said, here's the table base standing on the floor and you can already see how elegant it looks. Now we'll place the second tabletop onto the base like so. I'll line things up with the brackets we added to the bottom and then make sure the tabletop is perfectly centred. And then now we have side table number two. Starting at the base, notice how wrapping those seams with the extra silver trim gives the pedestal such a sleek, high-end looking design. And as we move up the length of the base, we have an hourglass shape that amplifies the luxury look of this table. Then for the custom-made table that the metallic silver doily center framed by the sparkling rhinestone border and real glass gems is absolutely stunning, adding sparkle to the entire table. This table looks beautiful when placed on one side of an armchair, but equally gorgeous placed in between two matching armchairs. Now here is how we make these side tables truly modular. I've taken the second tabletop we just finished making and placed it right on top of the first table base we made earlier. And just like that, we have a completely brand new third side table design. I absolutely love how we can mix and match these bases and tops to fit any room or decor style. These pieces are truly modular. Because the components are interchangeable, you can refresh the whole look of your space in mere seconds. In fact, here's a fourth look for our side table. Absolutely beautiful and elegant, don't you think? If you enjoyed today's craft projects, let me know down in the comments which side table design you liked best. And if you feel inspired, please give me a big thumbs up, a hype, subscribe to my channel and share with other creative gems. Also, remember to check out all my written tutorials at creativity.substack.com and join my weekly newsletter to receive printable tutorials and the best deals on all your favorite craft supplies.