For the rest of a first-apartment setup on a budget, our first apartment essentials checklist covers what to buy first — this guide is just the styling layer once the essentials are covered.
Dollarama is genuinely useful for apartment decor, but not everything on the shelf earns a spot in your space. Some pieces — a handful of the ceramic vases, the plain frames, two or three greenery picks — look like they cost ten times what you paid. Others are obviously a dollar-store item the second you touch them. The difference usually comes down to finish and material, not price, and it’s consistent enough across visits that you can shop by category once you know the pattern.
This guide breaks it down by category: what to grab, what to skip, and why one version of the “same” item looks expensive while another doesn’t.
Why Some Dollarama Items Pass and Others Don’t
Before the category-by-category picks, the pattern is worth understanding because it applies to every aisle, not just decor:
Key takeaway: Three visual tells separate Dollarama items that look expensive from those that look cheap: matte finishes read as handmade while glossy finishes read as plastic, heavier items signal real ceramic or glass, and natural irregularity in textures distinguishes quality pieces from mass-molded repetitive patterns.
Matte beats glossy. Ceramic, ceramic-look, ceramic-finish — the distinction that actually matters is matte versus glossy. A matte finish reads as handmade or natural regardless of what it’s actually made of. A glossy finish on anything other than real glass reads as plastic, instantly, under any kind of light.
Weight is a tell. Real ceramic and glass have heft. Pick an item up before deciding — if it’s suspiciously light for its size, it’s a plastic imitation, and it’ll look like one on a shelf too.
Repetition reads as fake. This is the single biggest giveaway for faux greenery and some frames: anything mass-molded has identical, repeating details — every leaf the same shape, every “wood grain” line repeating on a loop. Natural materials and genuinely well-made fakes have irregularity built in.
Simple beats ornate. Dollarama’s plainest version of anything (a flat frame, an unadorned vase, a solid-colour tray) usually looks better than their “fancier” version with trim, pattern, or embellishment, because the embellishment is where the low cost always shows.
Dollarama Bud Vases: Which Ones Actually Look Expensive?
Dollarama vases are the single best category in the store for this exercise, because the gap between the best and worst options is enormous for the same $1.50–$4 CAD price range.
Dollarama Bud Vase — Best Styles to Buy
The Dollarama bud vase section changes seasonally, but a few styles consistently return and consistently look good:
- Ribbed or fluted matte ceramic bud vase ($2.50–$4 CAD) in white, sand, or sage green. The ribbed texture does most of the work — it catches light unevenly, the way a handmade piece would, and reads as considered rather than mass-produced. This is the single best buy in the whole store for decor.
- Clear glass bud vase with a slightly irregular silhouette ($2–$3 CAD) — not a perfectly uniform cylinder, but one with a gentle curve or asymmetry. Group three or five Dollarama bud vases together at different heights for the best effect; a single one looks sparse.
- Small matte stoneware-style bud vase in muted earth tones ($3–$4 CAD) — these mix well with the ceramic planters below for a cohesive look across a console table or shelf.
What makes a Dollarama bud vase look expensive: the size (small = intentional, not undersized), the finish (matte always beats glossy), and grouping (three odd-numbered at different heights reads as styled, not random). A single Dollarama bud vase on an empty shelf looks sparse — the same vase in a group of three looks like a design choice.
Dollarama Vases to Skip
- Glossy plastic vases in any colour, including ones made to look like coloured glass. The sheen is the giveaway from across the room.
- Vases with printed patterns (florals, geometric prints) — the printing process itself has a flatness that doesn’t read as decorative glass or ceramic.
- Anything with faceted, “crystal-look” plastic sides — this is one of the most common cheap-looking finishes in the whole store.
Do Dollarama Ceramic Planters Look High-End?
Planters follow the exact same logic as vases, with one added test: weight.
Buy these:
- Plain unglazed terracotta pots ($2–$3.50 CAD depending on size) — genuinely identical in look to terracotta from a garden centre at 5–10x the price. Works for both real and faux plants.
- Matte white or sand-coloured ceramic planters ($2.50–$5 CAD) — buy two or three sizes and cluster them rather than relying on one statement piece.
Skip these:
- “Ceramic-look” planters that are actually glazed plastic — pick it up first. If it’s noticeably lighter than you’d expect, it’s plastic, and the glaze has a faint shine that gives it away even from a few feet back.
- Planters with painted-on texture meant to mimic concrete or stone — the paint has a flatness real concrete doesn’t.
What’s the Trick with Dollarama Frames?
Frames are the easiest category to get right, because the fix is just: buy the plain one.
Buy these:
- Flat or slightly beveled frames in matte black, white, or a natural wood tone ($2–$4 CAD). Once there’s a photo or print inside and it’s on a wall, there is almost no visible difference between this and a frame that costs $15–$20.
- A matched gallery wall of 5–6 identical frames in one colour and style. Uniformity reads as intentional design; a mismatched set of random frame styles reads as exactly what it is — whatever was on sale.
Skip these:
- Anything with gold or silver plastic trim, ornate corner details, or a faux-marble border print. These details exist specifically to look “fancier,” and that’s exactly where the low cost is most visible.
- Frames with a printed wood-grain pattern rather than an actual wood-tone finish — up close, the repeating grain pattern is obvious.
Which Faux Greenery Doesn’t Look Fake?
This is the category with the narrowest set of good options — most faux plants at the dollar-store price point look fake from across a room, not just up close.
Buy these:
- Eucalyptus stems ($2–$3 CAD) — the natural colour variation between leaves and the irregular spacing along the stem holds up at normal viewing distance. Works in a vase alone or mixed with a dried pampas stem.
- Olive branches ($2.50–$3 CAD) — similar reasoning: the leaves aren’t perfectly uniform, and the muted green-grey tone doesn’t have the glossy “faux plant green” that gives most options away.
Skip these:
- Faux fiddle leaf fig, monstera, or anything with large, glossy, uniformly-shaped leaves. The giveaway is repetition: if every leaf is identical to the one next to it, it reads as fake immediately, even from across the room.
- Any stem where the leaves have a visible sheen under indoor lighting — real leaves (and good fakes) are matte or only slightly glossy, not shiny.
Do Dollarama Storage Baskets Work as Decor?
Baskets are a genuine dual-purpose win if you pick the right texture — and genuinely not if you don’t.
Buy these:
- Woven seagrass or paper-rope baskets ($3–$5 CAD) with visible natural texture. On an open shelf, under a console table, or next to a reading chair, these look like an intentional styling choice, not overflow storage.
Skip these for display (keep them, just put them away):
- Wire mesh baskets — useful, cheap, genuinely good for actual storage, but they read as storage, not decor, the moment they’re visible in a styled space.
- Glossy-coated fabric bins — fine inside a closet, not on a shelf you’re trying to make look put-together.
Trays, Candle Holders, and Other Small Decor
Beyond vases and planters, a few other small categories are worth the same scrutiny.
Buy these:
- Matte metal trays in black, brass-tone, or white ($2.50–$4 CAD) — used under a vase grouping or on a coffee table, a tray instantly makes a cluster of small objects look arranged rather than scattered. Stick to a flat matte finish; a shiny mirrored tray reads as a bathroom accessory.
- Plain glass or ceramic candle holders in a single colour ($2–$3 CAD each) — three at different heights down the centre of a table looks considered. Avoid the ones with painted-on patterns or glitter finishes.
- Wood-bead or wood-bowl decor pieces ($3–$5 CAD) — real wood always reads as real wood, which makes this one of the safest categories in the whole store.
Skip these:
- Mirrored or chrome-finish trays and holders — the finish scratches fast and looks like foil under most indoor lighting within a few weeks.
- Anything with a painted metallic finish over plastic (gold-painted plastic candle holders are extremely common and extremely visible as plastic once the paint wears at the edges, which happens quickly).
How to Style Dollarama Finds So They Don’t Look Like Dollarama
Picking the right individual items only gets you halfway — how they’re arranged matters just as much, and it’s free.
Group in odd numbers. Three vases at different heights looks styled; two matching vases looks like you bought a two-pack. This applies to candle holders, planters, and frames equally.
Mix in one non-Dollarama piece. A single higher-end or secondhand item in a cluster — a real wood bowl from a thrift store, one ceramic piece from IKEA — raises the perceived value of everything around it. Our first apartment essentials checklist covers where else to find cheap secondhand pieces that work the same way.
Don’t cluster by brand, cluster by colour and material. A vase, a candle holder, and a small dish from three different places look cohesive if they share a colour palette (all matte white, or all warm neutrals). Grouping by where you bought them, instead of how they look together, is the fastest way to make a styled shelf look like a dollar-store haul.
Leave empty space. The instinct with cheap decor is to buy more and fill every surface. A shelf with three well-chosen pieces and visible negative space around them looks more expensive than the same shelf crammed with ten items, regardless of what any individual piece cost.
Dollarama vs. Dollar Tree vs. Miniso: Which Is Worth It for Decor?
If you have access to more than one budget store, here’s how they actually compare for the categories above:
| Category | Dollarama | Dollar Tree | Miniso |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ceramic vases | ✅ Best option — matte ceramic quality is genuine | ❌ Mostly glossy plastic | ✅ Good but 2–3x the price |
| Terracotta planters | ✅ Best value | ❌ Rarely stocked | ✅ Available, pricier |
| Picture frames | ✅ Plain styles work well | ⚠️ Fewer plain options | ✅ Clean minimal frames |
| Faux greenery | ⚠️ 2–3 good options only | ❌ Mostly look fake | ⚠️ Better quality but $4–$8 |
| Woven baskets | ✅ Good texture at $3–$5 | ⚠️ Hit or miss | ✅ Better range, higher price |
| Candle holders | ✅ Plain glass options work | ⚠️ Limited | ✅ Good minimalist options |
Bottom line: Dollarama wins on ceramic vases and terracotta planters specifically — those two categories outperform what you’ll find at Dollar Tree and match Miniso at a fraction of the price. Miniso pulls ahead on faux greenery quality and frames. If you only have Dollarama access, the categories above are where to focus.
Three Categories to Skip Entirely for Decor
A few categories are worth avoiding altogether for styling purposes, even though they’re fine for their intended use elsewhere in the apartment:
Artificial flowers in bright, saturated colours. Unlike the eucalyptus and olive stems above, bright faux flowers (roses, tulips, bright daisies) almost never pass — the dye saturation on fabric or plastic petals doesn’t match how real flowers actually look, even from across a room. If you want colour, a single real stem from a grocery store ($3–$6 CAD) lasts a week and looks infinitely better than a permanent fake one.
Patterned textiles sold as “decorative.” Throw pillow covers and small table runners with busy printed patterns tend to look like exactly what they are. Plain, solid-colour textiles in a good material (even a basic cotton) read as more considered than a patterned one trying to look expensive.
Anything with a faux-luxury material name on the packaging. “Marble-look,” “crystal-effect,” “gold-finish” on the label is usually a direct warning that the item is trying to visually compensate for not being that material. The plainest, most honestly-described item in a category is consistently the better styling choice.
Where This Fits Into a Renter’s Budget
None of this is about avoiding Dollarama — it’s about shopping it selectively instead of filling a cart with everything that looks decor-adjacent. A renter furnishing a first apartment on a tight budget (see our first apartment essentials checklist for the full priority order) should spend on furniture and functional pieces first, and treat Dollarama as the source for the final 10% — the styling layer that makes a space feel finished once the actual essentials are covered. Spending $40–$60 CAD here, chosen carefully using the categories above, does more for how a room looks than spending the same amount on decor from a mid-range retailer without this kind of selectivity.
The Full Shopping List, by Price
| Item | What to buy | Price (CAD) |
|---|---|---|
| Vases | Ribbed matte ceramic bud vase | $2.50–$4 |
| Vases | Irregular clear glass bud vase | $2–$3 |
| Planters | Unglazed terracotta pot | $2–$3.50 |
| Planters | Matte white/sand ceramic planter | $2.50–$5 |
| Frames | Flat matte black or wood-tone frame | $2–$4 |
| Greenery | Eucalyptus stem | $2–$3 |
| Greenery | Olive branch stem | $2.50–$3 |
| Baskets | Woven seagrass basket | $3–$5 |
| Trays | Matte metal tray | $2.50–$4 |
| Candle holders | Plain glass or ceramic, single colour | $2–$3 |
A full styling pass across a console table, a shelf, and one gallery wall — 2 vases, 2 planters, 5 frames, 3 greenery stems, 1 basket, 1 tray, 3 candle holders — runs roughly $45–$65 CAD total. For the rest of a renter-friendly decorating budget, our 20 no-damage decor changes guide covers what to do with the walls once the surfaces are styled.
Once you’ve covered the Dollarama basics, the next tier up is Winners and HomeSense for pieces that look genuinely designer — throw pillows, candles, and ceramics at 40–60% off boutique pricing. For storage and organization specifically, Canadian Tire has the best value on bins and over-door organizers, and Giant Tiger is worth checking for bedding and fabric storage at prices below Walmart.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I buy bud vases at Dollarama?
Dollarama stocks bud vases in the home decor aisle at most Canadian locations, typically near the candles and picture frames. The selection rotates seasonally, but ribbed matte ceramic bud vases ($2.50–$4 CAD) and clear glass bud vases ($2–$3 CAD) are the most consistently available styles year-round. Check back every few weeks if your local store is out of the ceramic options — they restock frequently, especially around spring and fall seasonal resets.
