Candle Upgrade

If you've read my blog before, you already know that when it comes to my home, I have champagne taste on a beer budget (more specifically on a Natural Light budget). I'm always looking for ways to use inexpensive items in creative ways, and today I want to share with you a simple trick to ensure that your cheap candles are as amazing as name brand ones like Yankee, Woodwick or (my personal favorite) Bath & Body Works candles.

You can find cheap candles at most stores. Dollar stores, Walmart and grocery stores usually have a good selection. Typically, it isn't very difficult to find cheap candles that smell good. The main difference between cheap candles and expensive ones is that the cheap ones don't smell as strong. Which brings us to tip #1. Unless you are putting your cheap candle in a very small room like a powder room, make sure you buy one with multiple wicks. The more wicks the stronger the smell. I bought this three wick candle at Kroger for $3.88, and it smells amazing:

While it smells nice and with 3 wicks is strong enough to freshen my entire living room, it is kinda ugly. So I whipped out my handy dandy glue gun and came up with this:

I bought a ziploc bag full of lace at a garage sale for 25 cents and it has lasted me a very long time. I also purchased a spool of twine about a year ago for I think $3, and it is nowhere near running out either. So for pennies, I upgraded my cheap grocery store candle so that it not only smells good, but it looks good too. If lace isn't your cup of tea, it would also be really easy to use Modge Podge (which is just a glue and water mixture) to stick newspaper or even sheet music to the outside of your candles.

Not a bad transformation, right?

What about you? Do you have any tips to turn inexpensive items into treasures?

Thanks!

Jesse