Dollarama sells glass vases, ceramic planters, and woven baskets for $1 to $5 CAD that look nearly identical to $25–$40 CAD pieces from West Elm or HomeSense once styled correctly. The difference isn’t the store, it’s the shape you pick and how you group it.
I’ve furnished two rentals almost entirely off Dollarama runs, and the pieces nobody guesses are from there are always the plainest ones: a clear glass vase, a matte ceramic pot, an unmarked wooden tray. The mistake most people make is grabbing the item with the most going on, when the boring one is what actually looks expensive.
This one’s a single-retailer deep dive, not a general budget guide. For the broader near-$0 approach across other stores too, see cheapest ways to make a rental feel stylish.
TL;DR: The Dollarama items that look expensive share three traits — plain shapes, neutral colours, and no visible branding. Glass vases ($1.50–$3), ceramic planters ($2–$4), plastic frames sprayed matte black ($1–$2 each), faux eucalyptus stems ($1.50–$3), and woven baskets ($3–$5) are the strongest picks. Style them in odd-numbered clusters, decant anything labeled, and skip the fully assembled plastic bouquets.
Why Do Dollarama Items Sometimes Look Cheap?
Dollarama decor looks cheap when it’s bought in its packaged, fully-finished form and set down alone with nothing else around it. A single plastic frame or one bright plastic vase on an empty shelf has nowhere to hide — clustering budget objects together, rather than isolating them, is the standard styling trick for making cheap pieces read as intentional.
The fix is almost always about grouping, not the object itself. A single $2 ceramic pot on a bare windowsill reads as an afterthought. The same pot next to a taller glass vase and a small stack of books reads as a styled vignette. I learned this the hard way in my first apartment, where I lined up five different Dollarama vases along a shelf like a display case, and it looked exactly like what it was: a dollar store shelf.
Grouping odd numbers, mixing heights, and leaving breathing room between clusters is the entire trick. It costs nothing extra and takes about ten minutes per shelf.
Which Dollarama Vases Actually Look Expensive?
Plain clear or amber glass bud vases at Dollarama, priced around $1.50 to $3 CAD, look nearly identical to $20+ ceramic-look vases sold at West Elm and Anthropologie once grouped in threes on a console table. The undecorated glass is the key detail — anything etched or coloured reads cheaper.
Look specifically for the small, narrow-neck bud vases near the floral aisle. They’re usually sold individually or in a small multipack, and the narrow neck is what makes a single dried stem or faux branch look deliberate instead of sparse.
Styling tip: buy three of the same vase in slightly different heights, cluster them together on a console or shelf, and put one stem of faux greenery in the tallest one only. Leaving the shorter two empty makes the grouping look designed rather than filled for the sake of it.
Most budget-decor advice tells you to fill every vase. The opposite is true. An empty glass vase next to a filled one photographs better and looks more expensive because negative space reads as intentional in a way a fully-stuffed arrangement doesn’t.
Do Dollarama Ceramic Planters Look High-End?
Plain matte ceramic planters at Dollarama, roughly $2 to $4 CAD, pass for higher-end pieces once the plastic plant nursery pot is hidden inside them. The trick isn’t the planter, it’s swapping out whatever ugly plastic pot the plant came in.
Most real or faux plants at garden centres and even Dollarama itself come in a thin plastic nursery pot with a visible brand sticker. Peel the sticker, drop the whole nursery pot inside a plain ceramic Dollarama planter one size up, and the plant instantly looks repotted rather than store-bought.
Stick to white, terracotta, or matte grey planters without a glossy glaze or painted pattern. The glossy, brightly glazed ones are the ones that look like a dollar store item from across the room.
This pairs well with the priority order in apartment decor on a budget, where plants and art are the last $20–$40 CAD layer, added once the bigger pieces like a rug and lighting are already in place.
What’s the Trick With Dollarama Frames?
Dollarama plastic photo frames, around $1.50 to $3 CAD each, look like proper matte metal frames once sprayed with a can of matte black or matte white spray paint. The glossy plastic finish is the only thing giving away the original price, and a $6 can of spray paint fixes it for a whole gallery wall.
Buy the frames in one consistent size, or two sizes at most, and spray them all the same colour in one afternoon outside or in a ventilated space. Let them dry fully between coats, which usually takes about 20 minutes for spray paint at this scale.
Fill them with printed photos from Costco (roughly $0.20–$0.50 per 4×6 print) rather than the stock photo insert that comes in the frame. A gallery wall of 8–10 sprayed frames with personal photos costs under $25 CAD total and looks nothing like its parts.
Which Faux Greenery Doesn’t Look Fake?
Loose faux eucalyptus or olive branch stems at Dollarama, priced around $1.50 to $3 CAD each, look convincing once trimmed with scissors and arranged individually rather than left in the pre-made plastic bouquet shape they’re sold in.
The pre-arranged bouquets, the kind sold already fanned out and tied, are the giveaway. Buying individual loose stems and arranging them yourself in odd numbers (one, three, or five stems per vase) looks far more like a real cut arrangement.
Styling tips that make faux greenery believable:
- Trim stems to different lengths before placing them, real greenery is never uniform
- Bend the stems slightly by hand so they don’t sit perfectly straight
- Use one stem type per vase rather than mixing five different faux plants together
- Dust them every few weeks, dusty faux plants are the fastest way to look neglected
Do Dollarama Storage Baskets Work as Decor?
Woven or rattan-look storage baskets at Dollarama, priced around $3 to $5 CAD, double as both functional storage and open-shelf styling once grouped in two or three different sizes. This is one of the few categories where the item is genuinely doing two jobs for one price.
Open shelving in a small apartment needs a mix of textures to avoid looking cluttered, and a woven basket breaks up an otherwise all-hard-surfaces shelf of books and frames. It’s the same layered logic covered in apartment organization under $100 CAD, where mixed-texture bins do double duty as both storage and visual interest.
Use the largest basket for something bulky like blankets or extra linens, and the smaller ones for loose items like remotes or mail, so the baskets look purposeful rather than decorative-only.
Dollarama Item, Price, and Styling Trick
| Dollarama Item | Price (CAD) | Styling Trick |
|---|---|---|
| Glass bud vase | $1.50–$3 | Cluster 3 in different heights, leave one empty |
| Ceramic planter | $2–$4 | Hide the plastic nursery pot inside, remove stickers |
| Plastic photo frame | $1.50–$3 | Spray matte black or white, use real printed photos |
| Faux eucalyptus stem | $1.50–$3 | Buy loose stems, trim, arrange in odd numbers |
| Woven storage basket | $3–$5 | Group 2–3 sizes on open shelving |
| Wooden serving tray | $2–$4 | Use to corral remotes, candles, or a small plant on a coffee table |
| Unscented pillar candle | $1–$2 | Group 3 different heights on a tray |
What’s the Fastest Way to Style a Dollarama Shelf?
The fastest way to style a shelf of Dollarama items is a wooden tray as the base, one taller object, one shorter object, and a small stack of books, all within one colour family. This single formula covers most bookshelf and console styling.
A quick shelf formula that works almost every time:
- Start with a plain wooden or matte tray ($2–$4 CAD) as an anchor
- Add one tall item (a vase with a single greenery stem)
- Add one short item (a ceramic planter or a small stack of books)
- Leave visible empty space, don’t fill every inch
Across the shelves I’ve restyled in two different rentals, the sets that got the most compliments from guests were never the ones with the most objects on them, they were the ones with the most empty space between three or four well-chosen pieces.
What Should You Skip at Dollarama?
Skip anything with a visible logo, a printed seasonal pattern, or a glossy bright plastic finish, since these are the details that instantly read as a dollar store purchase regardless of how it’s styled. No amount of clustering fixes a branded item.
Fully assembled plastic flower bouquets, character-printed mugs, and anything in shiny primary-coloured plastic tend to look like exactly what they cost. If an item looks like it belongs in a kid’s party favour bag, it’s not the one to build a shelf around.
When in doubt, ask whether the item would look the same with the price tag peeled off. If the shape and material alone hold up, it’s a keeper.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Dollarama items look expensive in an apartment? Glass bud vases, plain ceramic planters, matte-sprayed frames, faux eucalyptus stems, and woven baskets are the strongest performers, all priced between $1 and $5 CAD.
How much can I spend at Dollarama and still look put together? A full living room refresh across 8–10 items runs roughly $20–$30 CAD when styled in clusters rather than scattered individually.
Does fake greenery from Dollarama look cheap? Not when it’s loose stems trimmed and arranged yourself, rather than the pre-made plastic bouquets sold already fanned out.
What should I avoid buying at Dollarama for decor? Anything with a visible logo, seasonal print, or glossy bright plastic finish. These details are what give away the price, not the store itself.
Can I use Dollarama storage baskets as decor? Yes, woven baskets in two or three sizes work as both storage and shelf styling when grouped together on open shelving.
A $20 Dollarama run styled properly beats a $100 haul of random decor every time. Buy the plain shapes, group them in clusters, and skip anything with a logo on it, and nobody will guess where it came from.
→ Ready to build out the rest of the room? See apartment decor on a budget for the full priority order on rugs, lighting, and textiles beyond the small stuff, or small apartment bathroom storage ideas for where cheap finds work in the bathroom.
→ Want more near-zero-cost styling moves beyond Dollarama? See cheapest ways to make a rental feel stylish.
