Decorate Your Home for Valentine's Day with Love

Decorating your home for Valentine's Day will make your home feel warm and loved. Think hearts, cupids, teddy bears, love, candy, red, pink, white, candles, lace, ribbons, cards - I'm sure you can come up with many creative ideas.

Start with your front door. You can buy a pretty Valentine's Day wreath or you can make one. Buy or recycle a wreath - any kind will do -and hot glue an arrangement of silk or plastic flowers in red, white, and pink. Add ribbon, lace, little teddy bears, heart cookie cutters, buttons, or ornaments, anything related to hearts and valentines. Another idea is to bend a wire coat hanger into a heart shape and thread strips of burlap (about 3 pieces of 3 X 50 in. strips.). If you can sew, a large, lightly stuffed heart looks festive on a door and can be decorated. You can also cut out pairs of felt hearts, lightly stuff them, and sew or glue them together. You can paint conversation heart saying on them if you'd like. Add to a ready-made wreath or glue to cardboard cutout of a wreath.

Buy some inexpensive tablecloths, placemats, potholders, towels, and coffee cups for your kitchen, dining room and bathrooms. They could be a Valentine or heart theme or even just red. Add heart shaped soaps. Buy or make a soap dispenser from a clear pump bottle by adding some large decorative items like marble, pretty rocks, plastic flowers, foam hearts and put some stickers and ribbons on the outside. You can recycle an old bottle of soft soap by removing the label.

Buy a fresh or silk flower arrangement and put in a pretty vase for a pretty centerpiece. You can also make centerpieces from old heart shaped candy boxes, glass bowls, mason jars, small fish bowls, trays, and small mirrors. Arrange valentine candy, potpourri, old valentine cards, or red glass beads or pebbles, and add pretty candle votives or tapers. Spice them up with glitter, ribbons and other decorations. Watch for fire hazards when burning candles as some of your decorations could be flammable.

Scatter a few decorations around on end tables, shelves, and mantles. These can be candy dishes or small jars and baskets filled with Valentine candy, red, pink, or white votive candles, small flower arrangements, teddy bears, and valentine figures. A pretty candle or soap dish looks festive on the vanity in the bathroom. Another great decorating idea for the bathroom is to layer a pretty placemat on the back of the toilet tank with a lace doily and pretty candle on top.

The bedroom could use some pretty lace or valentine themed sheets and pillowcases. Pillowcases are really easy to sew. A coordinated decorative heart pillow looks pretty and festive on the bed and a scattering of candles and a book of poetry look very romantic on the bedside table.

Table linens, potholders, cups, sheets, and pillows can be found in most department stores like Wal-Mart, Target, and Kohl's. Kohl's has a large selection of potholders, kitchen towels, table runners and cloths, placemats, and decorations. Target and Wal-Mart have a lot of decorations and some potholders and kitchen towels. Decorations can also be found at the dollar store and craft stores.