This “Almost Free” Lowe’s Holiday DIY Is So Cute and Simple (It Hardly Takes Up Any Space!)

The only thing better than decorating for the holiday season is when you find ways to decorate for free. Case in point? One Instagram user put free paint chips from Lowe’s to good use at Christmastime, and the result is an absolutely adorable holiday village that you can reuse year after year after year.

“A few years ago when we were looking at the Christmas decorations for sale I realized these paint samples look just like little houses,” Sibia Torres Padilla wrote in a recent Instagram caption, referring specifically to Lowe’s paint chips. “I had been a fan of using paint samples and crafts for a while, and it dawned on me that this would be really simple and cute for our window display.”

“This is an almost free craft that you can do, and it’s a lot of fun for the kids, too,” she continued. “All you need is a white paint marker, although you could also cut little windows out of them and it would look really cute, too.”

Because these are literal paint chips from the hardware store, you can totally customize the colors of your Christmas village to best fit your space — you may actually be able to match the mini houses to your wall color. Then, cut the bottom of the paint chips to make them different sizes and give your village variety.

Finally, take a white paint marker and start decorating, adding windows, doors, roof decorations, and more. You can also use colorful paint markers to add Christmas lights and glitter for a little more magic sparkle.

Use some double-stick tape to attach the DIY houses to the bottom of your window (or anywhere else you plan on displaying your Christmas village), and you’re done! You can save each one and continue to add to your little town every holiday season, making decorating paint chip houses an annual tradition. Best of all, because they’re so thin, they hardly take up any space to style in your home and store after Christmas.