20 Patriotic Decor Ideas – Trash to Treasure Crafts

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Square feature image with four of the fifteen Patriotic Decor Ideas shown.

Check out these awesome Patriotic decor ideas made with recycled materials, thrift store, and Dollar Tree items!

If you love all of the vintage patriotic decor that you see in home interior magazines, but not the price tag, then I highly recommend making your own.

These fun trash-to-treasure crafts will add simple beauty to your home and don’t worry, these are easy DIYs anyone can do!

And, almost anything can be repurposed into red, white, and blue Americana. So take a look around your house, head to your local thrift store, and gather up the items mentioned below!

Supplies You May Need

  • Items you can upcycle
  • Acrylic paint
  • Spray paint
  • Sandpaper
  • Scrap fabric
  • Scrap wood
  • Stain
  • Chip brushes
  • Duct tape
  • Beads, buttons, and other embellishments
  • Wire (28 gauge steel wire)
  • A drill and wood screws
  • A sewing machine
  • A cutting machine like a Cricut Maker

1. Bowling Pin Upcycle

I love these stripey bowling pins! They have such a vintage vibe and are perfectly imperfect with chippy red, white and blue paint.

A large and a small bowling pin shown with red white and blue stripes and DIY Patriotic decor idea.
Stripey Bowling Pins

2. Thrifted Flag Holders

Be on the lookout for chunky and ornate wood post caps and old wood finials that you can drill holes into to proudly display small flags!

Flea Markets and estate sales are also great places to snag architectural salvage items from old staircases. You could also buy a new chunky post top or a small wood finial at the home improvement store to get this same look.

Easy patriotic decor ideas using a Flag holder made from a vintage wood post cap from an old set of wood stairs, filled with American Flags.
Large Wood Post Cap Flag Holder
Table top flag holder made out of a piece of wood cut in the shape of a star as the base with a wood finial attached with a hole, holding a small flag.
Small finial and star tabletop flag holder.

3. Old Rusty Star Tin Table

I found this large rusty red tin at the antique store and knew it would make the perfect top for an old table pedestal I’ve been holding onto forever!

Red large tin with white stars used to make a pedestal table. The bottom pedestal a navy blue.

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Photo of a red white and blue tiered tray made from star tins with a star cookie cutter as a top decoration.

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Learn how to make beautiful tiered trays using thrifted items.

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4. Glassware

Thrift stores and even Dollar Tree are awesome places to snag inexpensive glassware. Group pretty red, white, and blue glassware on a shelf or onto a tray to use as a centerpiece.

If you’d like to customize your own glassware and color scheme, try painting inexpensive clear glassware with Sea Glass Spray Paint. There are so many colors to choose from and I love how sheer this paint goes on. For patriotic decor, I recommend Ruby Red and Cornflower Blue! Here’s a link on Amazon but you can also find this spray paint at hardware and craft supply stores.

Clear glassware on a shelf in red, white and blue is another no-fuss patriotic decor idea.
Red, White, and Blue Glassware.

5. Vintage Pan Lid Flag Holder

I found quite a few of these vintage pan lids and with a little spray paint, I made this beautiful flag holder for my porch. The bottom lid was white with a red stripe already, so all I needed to do was spray paint the top lid blue and add U.S.A. vinyl lettering that I cut on my Cricut Maker.

Photo of two vintage pan lids, blue on top, white with red trim on the bottom. U.S. Flag inserted into the two handles. Pan Lids repurposed to make a flag holder which is shown hanging on a porch post with blue sky in the background.

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Horizontal closeup photo of four finished vintage clipboard frames with skeleton clips in dark brown with black and white urban architectural elements like stairs and building exterior clipped to them.

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Learn how to make vintage-style clipboards!

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6. License Plate Holder

Turn an old license plate into a holder for flags or flowers. Just find something round to curve the plate around and you have an instant decor piece.

Texas, red white and blue license plate rounded to make a holder. Here It has a flag in it but you could use it for flower or anything you dream up!
Patriotic license plate holder.

7. Painted Baseball Vase Filler

Fill a basket or vase with a few old baseballs painted with stars and stripes. You may already have a few baseballs in your garage already.

Basket of worn baseballs painted blue with areas of blue stars and red stripes.

8. Patriotic Duct Tape Garland

Pick up duct tape and wooded beads from Dollar Tree to make this fun patriotic garland. To make the flags, simply fold a long piece of duct tape in half over the baker’s twine and cut it into a triangle or pennant shape.

Photo of red and blue duct tape flags garland with small to medium white wood beads separating the flags, hanging on an old window pane.
Patriotic Duct Tape Garland

9. Red, White, & Blue Scrap Fabric Crafts

Make rustic flag decor using scrap fabric! I love the handmade look of these pieces and they can be made with a sewing machine or sewn by hand.

Denim jean pocket with lace and buttons shown with scraps of red fabric - a Patriotic DIY wall hanging.
Denim Jean Pocket Flag Wall Hanging
Flag made out of blue denim, white buttons and white and red fabric scraps shown.
Scrappy Handmade Flags

10. Scrap Wood Signs

Grab some scrap wood from your garage to make these rustic signs to add to your patriotic decor. I made signs for all of the seasons and I’m sharing the SVG files! Click here to check out the full tutorial and download the Free SVG Stencil Art.

Two finished wood block signs shown with EST. 1776 & AMERICA on them with two small american flags in the background.
Scrap Wood Signs

11. Wood Block Fire Crackers

Here’s another scrapwood idea. Make a few blocky firecrackers! I love the muted colors on these but you could certainly paint yours with bright pops of red and blue!

A patriotic decor idea that I found atht he antique store! Photo shows a Tall square, hand painted fire crackers with rope for fire cracker top. Set of three shown.
Scrap wood firecrackers.

Or, make a smaller version with wood dowels. How cute would these be on a tiered tray or bookshelf?

Photo of hand painted firecrackers in a bundle of three tied with raffia and made out of dowels. The paint is sanded to give a chippy, rustic look and each has a tuft made from shredded twine for the lighter top. The tallest one is white with a red vertical stripe, the second is blue with white stars and the third and smallest in the set of three is red.
Decorative firecrackers made from dowels.

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Pink lawn flamingos lined up in the grass with santa hats and little scarves, a DIY decoration for Christmas in July.

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12. Wicker Baskets

Pick up a wicker basket at the thrift store and paint it red, white, and blue to hold linens or pillows.

Easy patriotic decor idea to paint a plain wicker basket with red, white and blue stripes on the inside and outside. Basket shown with a white blanket inside.
Painted Wicker Basket

13. Pop Can Planters

Soda cans make great little planters! Just remove the tops with a can opener and punch a couple of holes in the bottom for drainage.

Coke and Pepsi soda cans turned planters and placed in a wood holder with sparklers in front.
Pop Can Planters

14. Vintage Croquet Wind Chime

I found this mismatched croquet (wicket) set and I loved the texture of the wood! The top of this chime is an old, aluminum utility light that we had in the basement. You can create this same look by painting wood spindles, wood dowels, or any other interesting salvage items you can find.

Photo of a wind chime made out of salvage croquet set pieces and an old utility light for a top, painted red, white and blue.
Vintage Croquet Salvage Wind Chime

15. Clothespin Flags

Make clothespin flags to add a bit of warmth and nostalgia to your flower pots or patriotic centerpieces.

This easy patriotic decor ideas features american flags made from four clothespins that were painted like a flag and clipped to a stick.
American Flags Made From Clothespins

16. Marbled Mason Jar Solar Lights

Try this easy mason jar craft to light up your interior or porch. You can make these cute solar lights in just a few minutes using all Dollar Tree supplies. If you’d like to learn how to make them, link to the full tutorial here –> How to Make Marbled Solar Mason Jar Lights.

Photo of two finished red, white, and blue Marbled Mason Jar Solar Lights with beaded handle.
Marbled Mason Jar Solar Lights

17. Pretty Salt Shaker Tassels

Turn old salt shakers and scraps of ribbon into beautiful red, white & blue tassels! These are the perfect accent to hang on door knobs or to use as pull-backs for curtains.

Photo of three salt shakers used upcycled into tassels. Two are silver New York City mini tea pot shakers with a red, white and blue tassel below. The other is a tassel made out of just the silver top of a round salt shaker.

18. Patriotic Mixed Media Canvases

Get creative and decorate mini stretched canvases with supplies you probably have around the house. These are a few that my kids and I made over the summer. We used glitter, buttons, ribbon scraps, acrylic paint, and old sheet music!

19. Wine Cork Star

Learn how to make this fun Patriotic wine cork star! Get all the details and more wine cork craft ideas here–> 12 Easy Must-Try Wine Cork Crafts.

Wine cork star decoration shown on a vintage wood clipboard. The patriotic star had different red beads at the corners and is strung from the clipboard with a blue ribbon.

20. Spindle Stick Flags

Make vintage-style flags from old or new spindles. I had five spindles left over from another project in my craft bin so I decided to use them as pretty sticks for flags. To make them, I drilled a hole into the top of each spindle and cut the original 4×6 store-bought flag sticks to about 3/4 of an inch at the bottom of each flag. Then I glued the flags to the spindles, painted them white, and added a wood bead as a topper.

I hope these Patriotic decor ideas inspire you. For more ideas like these, check out the links to more craft ideas below!

Vertical Pinterest Pin with title and six of the 15 Patriotic Decor Ideas shown.
If you love these easy DIYs, Pin the image above to your Pinterest craft board to come back to later!

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Image with small vintage tins like Zig-Zag Accessories, Penn's, Scotch's typewriter ribbon, Three states tobacco and other red white and blue tins and additional collected items in a wall basket display.

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Inspiring ways to use vintage tins in your home!

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MORE HOME DECOR IDEAS:

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