How to Plan a Party with Easy, Upcycled Party Decorations
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Throwing a party doesn't have to break the bank. Before you go out shopping at the local party store for decor, shop around your house first. You would be surprised at how you can repurpose your everyday items into festive containers and place settings to fit your party theme.
Reuse extra fabric as table cloths
Leftover fabric in your sewing stash makes great table cloths. Muslin in particular is very inexpensive and can be easily dyed to match your decor. You can even take it a step further by tearing it into strips and creating a frayed fabric table cloth like we did for a recent baby shower. What a unique piece of decor this old fabric suddenly becomes!
Use spray paint to update decor
Take a look at this mismatched arrangement of bar and partyware that I wanted to use for a tropical, toucan-themed pool party. These pieces came from different parties of the past, and functionally they would work for this party, but they were the wrong colors.
I selected colors from my backdrop and spray painted most of the partyware items with those colors. It's amazing how coordinated it looks now with just a few cans of paint.
With spray paint in your arsenal, you can just look at the shape and function of items and take care of the color yourself. This is a great way to transform pieces you find at thrift stores or yard sales into chic party decorations.
Transform unmatched flatware with nail polish
Nail polish will stick to an amazing array of surfaces. With just a few swipes of the brush, you can add some coordinating colors to mismatched flatware, making it suddenly fit your party theme. You can even put these through the dishwasher if needed, but keep in mind that it will shorten the lifespan of your painted finish, so you may need to touch them up later. Or you can use acetone to remove the polish completely after the party, and use a different color next time.
Temporarily change the look of a bar cart or table with paper
Want to roll out the bar cart but it doesn't quite match the party theme? Easy! Just use decorative paper, Con-tact paper, or even wrapping paper to temporarily change up the look of your serving tables or bar carts.
To make this even easier to change out repeatedly, I cut a piece of acrylic to fit the shelves of my bar cart. For each party, I add a decorative paper under the acrylic to fit the season or theme of my party. I used a luxe black and gold marble print to dress it up for a New Year's Eve party.
And for Christmas, I switched it out for a sparkly gold paper that matched all my green and gold party decor.
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