10 Brilliant Dollar Tree Finds For Decorating Your Kitchen

When it comes time to decorate the kitchen, Pottery Barn, Mackenzie-Childs, or even Target may come to mind. The Dollar Tree, the place you get cheap Christmas mugs and rolls of wrapping paper for birthday parties, may not even be on the radar come decorating time, but maybe it should be. Even with the price increases the discount chain has seen over the last several years, the stores still carry reasonably-priced items by today's standards. Many items are usually $5 or less, though most of the stores' wares come in at just a buck-twenty-five.

Aside from that, many of Dollar Tree's offerings are just surprisingly cute. There are items to make table arrangements fancier, as well as all manner of shelves and shelf-like items for storage. And if you're looking for some temporary decorations to gussy up the kitchen when the holidays roll around, it's hard to beat DT for that, too. You get some items that broadcast your intent to celebrate the holiday du jour without breaking the bank.

The 10 items on this list are among Dollar Tree's most handsome and most practical. You'll find glasses to drink out of, items to decorate the wall with, and even carry-alls for small kitchen items that need to be transported from one room to the next. Buy just one piece or all 10 from the list, and watch how the cuteness factor in your kitchen amps up in the most practical, yet inexpensive, way ever.

Dollar Tree has some of the cutest ready-made items that look like they should cost a pretty penny but don't. Take the Crafters Square Rectangular Wooden Crate with Handles. At just over 5 inches by 3 inches, this old-fashioned-looking wooden crate is just the thing you need to round up those unruly bottles of condiments and sauces. And it's particularly handy if you're the type who carries your ketchup and mustard from the kitchen to the barbecue grill and back again. All you need to do is drop those condiment bottles into the crate and go grill. This little crate is just the thing you need to save yourself the back-and-forth trips to the kitchen. No forgotten condiments. No extra trips. Handy, right?

The wooden crate is already so cute on its own. However, if you're the type who loves to embellish items to make them more personalized, then you've found a piece of crafter's heaven with this piece. Because it's plain, it practically begs you to put some descriptive stenciling down its sides. Use some Felixcraft Store Letter Stencils for Painting to create fancy lettering. Or freehand images of burgers, good ol' American hot dogs, and other grill-ables to make this Dollar Tree crate a standout sauce carrier.

Most people don't think about salt and pepper shakers until they need them (or lose them), but it doesn't have to be that way. If you amp up the cuteness factor of your salt and pepper shakers, then they won't be an afterthought. You'll remember 'em because they're so cute. One such set that deserves to be in the running for the cutest salt and pepper shaker set is Dollar Tree's Mini Glass Salt and Pepper Shaker Jars with Handles and Metal Lids. These miniature Mason jar wannabes stand 3 inches tall and 2 inches wide. This makes them substantial enough to be full of the black and white stuff for a while, which, in turn, means you need to fill them up less.

But they're not just suitable for holding salt and pepper. The miniature jars' fitted lids come in two styles — with holes and without them. This feature is handy if you're thinking about using them as spice jars. One of the key factors that causes spices to go stale is exposure to air. Stashing spices in jars with lids without holes keeps them in tip-top shape for longer. Aside from all of this, if you already have a Mason jar decorating motif going on in the kitchen, adding a set of these bad boys to the table is one more subtle way to reinforce your decorating style.

If you've ever gone to a real country bar and diner and drank a flavorful lemonade recipe (or something a smidgen stronger that smells like lemons but burns on the way down, like whiskey), then you probably drank said liquid refreshment from a Mason jar. Mason jars as drinking glasses are a decorative look that arose from practicality. They offered homeowners and, eventually, barkeeps a way to save on glassware by recycling jars they already had. 

Nowadays, it's a decorative touch that's appealing long after the whiskey wears off and your whistle has been good and whetted by the homemade lemonade. If all of this makes you nostalgic for one of those cool Mason jars so that you can make your own drinks at home, you'll love Dollar Tree's Mason-style jar dupe. Shoot, you can even buy a set of 10 or 12 to make your cupboards look all cute and diner-like and still not break the bank.

At 5 inches tall and 4 inches wide, the Mason-style jar is big enough to hold a medium-sized drink. Granted, it doesn't replicate the sawdust-covered floors that seem to be prevalent in roadside steakhouses and diners that serve up those frosty Mason jar drinks. Still, if you fill enough of those Mason jars at home with all manner of good things to drink, you'll likely soon forget the sawdust floors. As for the line dancing that usually follows said drinks, no rule says you can't two-step at home, Mason jar mug in hand and all.

Once upon a time, kids, and maybe even a few adults, used to stop by the local five-and-dime and order a few licorice ropes, a couple of old-school candy bars, and a hard candy or two to go along with their ice cream or sodas. These sweet treats were usually held in jars on the counter behind the soda bar. And they were memorable because most of them sported twisty lids and ribbed sides, separating them from more practical canning jar styles. The use of these jars to hold candy was so prevalent that you can still refer to candy jars today, and people of a certain age automatically know what you're talking about. They probably even have a story or two about how the candy that came out of them cost 35 cents a piece or less.

The good news is nostalgia is now back as a decorating motif, and if you'd like to add a slice of yesteryear to your kitchen, Dollar Tree has got you covered. The discount chain carries Glass Candy Jars With Tight-Sealing Lids that are replicas (or close enough) of the old-fashioned jars one used to see in soda shops. The Dollar Tree carries three styles, though all the jars share a common lid design, making them look like a set. Buy a few to store hard candies in. Or use them to stash modern items, like Happy Belly Medium Roast Coffee Pods, tea bags, or sugar cubes, to update their look.

The fall and winter holiday seasons are the perfect times to break out your tea sandwich recipes and invite your closest friends over to nosh on them with you. While most tea sandwiches are so tasty that they don't need visual embellishments, it doesn't hurt to add a few to make them look even more appetizing. Certainly, adding elements like frilly toothpicks and skewered black olives is one way to dress them up. However, there's a decorative element that's even more practical: a Seasonal Collection 2-Tier Decorative Tray from Dollar Tree. In this case, it's not the sammies you're dressing up so much as the atmosphere around the sandwiches. Still, arranging tea sandwiches on beautiful trays makes them look more appetizing.

Dollar Tree's two-tiered trays feature wooden platters with metal bars separating the top and bottom trays, giving you plenty of space to stack sandwiches, muffins, and other treats. They also come with cute, decorative elements on top of the bar, a leaf- or a pumpkin-shaped carrying knob. These features make grabbing onto the tray and transporting the sandwiches across the room (or across town) a whole lot easier. At 15 inches high and 10 inches wide, the two-tiered trays are impressive enough to make you want to have parties every other day throughout the holiday season.

The good ol' straw basket. It's an item that initially started as a thing to carry stuff in. Corn on the cob. Fresh-baked bread. A bunch of apples or peaches from the backyard tree. You know, practical, mostly yummy stuff. Woven baskets are still used for useful tasks, but they also play important roles in decorating, particularly in rustic, country, and Boho styles. As such, they might just be the perfect addition to your countrified kitchen, and at nearly 12 inches wide and deep and $5 a pop, Dollar Tree has done you a solid by making Woven Straw Round Baskets a very financially accessible and practical addition to your kitchen decor scheme.

If you want to use them solely for decoration, tack a few on the wall above your dining table or on the backsplash of your counter. But if you'd like to make them both decorative and practical, store items like Cosmic Crisp apples or mini pumpkins in them. Just be sure to stack your fruity seasonal baubles high. Few things are naturally as lovely as the fruits of the season flowing over the sides of your own personal baskets of plenty.

Most of us like to decorate for the holidays throughout the year. However, it can get expensive to completely redo the whole house in the garb of the season du jour, whether it's Christmas, Easter, or something in between. What's great about shopping at a place like the Dollar Tree is that you can find little decorative touches, like holiday-themed soap dispensers, that let you add seasonal pops of inspiration without spending the big bucks. If you're not quite ready for a complete room makeover at the change of every holiday, these are the perfect solution. 

Currently, Dollar Tree carries a couple of different holiday-themed soap dispensers: an Easter Foam Soap Dispenser, a Fall Harvest Hand Soap Dispenser, Halloween-shaped Hand Soap Bottles, and a few Christmas-themed Stoneware Dispensers. When the holiday season is in full swing, the dispensers are fun to fill with soaps scented like the season, too. Think pumpkin spice for the fall holidays or pine trees for the winter holidays — you get the right idea. When the season ends, just pack them away in a drawer until you're ready to use them again.

Metal bulletin boards are a practical way to stash grocery lists, to leave sticky notes for family members or roommates, and to express your love for kitchen magnets. However, most of them are plain and white and, well, a little dull. They're hardly the item you think of when it comes time to add a little decorative oomph to your kitchen's decorating scheme.

Enter Dollar Tree's Special Moments Wood Clip Frames. At nearly 4 inches by 5 inches, they're the size of most photo frames. However, what sets them apart is their design. Instead of being frames designed to show off your photos behind a pane of glass, these clip-on frames feature a wooden back stand with a small metal clip glued to the front. Your photos are clipped on (instead of nestled behind the glass) and fancied up thanks to the tiny bow above the clip.

While you may first be inclined to use these for your photo displays, the clip-on frames also have other practical uses. Paint the frames different colors and assign one to each household member as a place to look for messages. Just post a sticky note or a three-by-five card on the clip and go — no more missed messages. And speaking of three-by-five cards, if you have any of your nana's vintage recipes stashed in a recipe box, you now have a way to display them while you're cooking. This keeps the recipe card clean and your hands free to cook.

Hooks are the kind of tool that are so useful, you don't seem to care as much about how they look as you do how well they might hold your pans or measuring cups in their spot on the wall beside the stove. However, when you get your hands on some Dollar Tree Floral Art hooks, you open the option to hang items on your kitchen walls in a grander, more beautiful style. These hooks feature a rose at the top, just above the hook. The metallic paint on the roses comes in gray, white, and black, with flecks of gold here and there to luxe up their look.

The bottom part of the piece is the actual hook. The hook is quite long. Because of this, you'd find the rose art hooks helpful in a couple of places in and around the kitchen. If your kitchen has a back door, you can hang a few hooks near it so people have a place to hang their coats as they come in. If your pots and pans have holes in the handle, these items would be a good option for them, especially if you want to stash the cooking tools near where you cook. And because the hooks are so pretty, they'd also be a stunning place to hang items like dish towels or hot pads. In short, they offer you a gorgeous way to extend your kitchen storage space that's also really beautiful.

Very often, the most interesting table settings come not from all things matchy-matchy but rather from a combination of different patterns and design motifs artfully placed together. A straightforward way to introduce multiple styles into your decor scheme is to use two or three different placemat designs when setting the table. Because Dollar Tree offers a variety of placemat designs, it's easy to pull off this look. However, two designs in particular would pair well: the Bon Appétit placemats and the Gather Tabletop placemats. 

Although the two designs feature different decorative motifs — kitchen tools versus leaves and branches — their common color schemes of black and gray would help tie them visually together on your table. It doesn't hurt that their measurements line up exactly, too. Each set includes placemats measuring 11 inches by 17 inches. Having them side by side wouldn't look jarring because they're all the same size and shape. Finally, the overall themes complement each other. That is, they encourage you to gather together for a delish meal. Bon appetit!