Seasons > Valentine’s Day > Home Decorations > Living  room

Candles just seem to go with Valentine’s day. Add them to hearts and you have a Valentine’s arrangement. Add lots of candles for a big space and a big statement, or just on or two candles for a small space, or just a hint of Valentine’s. Here the brass heat box is mounted on a plate rack, and the brass is repeated in the candle sticks and the brass buckets. Fill a bucket with candy for each person in the family. As happy memories are made, good feelings become associated with the family. So even after they have grown, if they see hearts, they think, “Oh, Valentine’s day is such a happy day...my family really loves me.” If you like the look, but haven’t seen any buckets at hundred yen stores, use mugs with heart designs, tiny red gift bags, or heart shaped boxes, or paper cups with pipe cleaner handles.

Any heart will do--it doesn’t have to be brass. Here is a variation with a heart shaped basket and doily and accented with “silk” flowers and fake strawberries. A plate rack allows the basket to sit vertically so it can be seen.

Here is a simpler version with just 2 candles. The “x” and “o,” representing hugs and kisses, are actually earrings and a scarf ring. I always look at items with an open mind so that I can find new uses for them.

These heart boxes are sold at hundred yen stores. They nest, so they don’t take up so much storage space. Both penguin pairs were purchased at hundred yen stores. The heart on the wall is a hundred yen garland fastened to a hanger that has been bent into a heart shape.

These hearts are boxes as well. The one small one was purchased at a dollar store, and is filled with potpourri. The heart wreath on the wall is made from felt hearts that were sold as Christmas tree ornaments at hundred yen stores. They are mounted on a cardboard ring that is covered in white paper.

In this variation, the basket heart embellished with “silk” roses is hung on the wall. The candles are arranged so that their heights follow the shape of the heart on the wall. There are so many designs and styles of hearts available, you are only limited by your imagination.

Red throw pillows are great if they can fit into your decor because they can be used for so many holidays--Christmas, Valentine’s day, American Independence day, as well as fall. Just add some embellishments for a quick seasonal change. For a Valentine twist, sew or glue hundred yen felt hearts to wide ribbon. Or cut out your own felt designs. Sew or glue the ends of the ribbon into a loop and slide it on from the side. Don’t use felt for the ribbon portion because it will stretch out of shape when people lean against them.

For this variation, sew a heart shaped doily to 3 narrow ribbons and slip them over the pillow from the side. Pink or white pillows would work as well for the Valentine season. If you can’t find cushion covers at the hundred yen store like these, it does not take long to sew them if you have a sewing machine. Don’t bother with zippers--just sew a flap in the back to make it easy to change the covers when the seasons change.

The red felt hearts in the window are sold as Christmas tree ornaments at hundred yen stores. If you want to make your own out of felt, you may want to glue two layers together, or glue a layer of cardboard between the felt so they hold their shape--these are quite thick and stiff, so they will not get floppy even if you hang them for a month.

These red hearts are also Christmas tree ornaments, but this time they are iridescent plastic hearts in two sizes. Some stores sell these year round in the party goods section of the store. So don’t get stuck with thinking of them only as Christmas ornaments. If they are hearts, they make great Valentine decorations.

At night the window looks totally different from during the day, so it is fun to see the change without having to do anything. 

So, whatever the season, if you see hearts, buy several, and use them to decorate in February.

Seasons > Valentine’s Day > Home Decorations > Living  room

When I found these red frames at a hundred yen store, I knew they would make great Valentine decorations.  For the frame on the left, I wanted to use this magazine cover  with lots of hearts, but the cover was too small. So I color copied it and enlarged it to fit the A3 sized frame.

The other frame had 9 spaces to fill, so I found pictures of my children with each other at different ages, and put them in the frame to remind them of what good friends they had been to each other over the years.

Using similar decorations around the room can pull the decorations together and make it feel like they match, rather than having a hodgepodge of unrelated items. So in this case the strawberry bushes, red candles, and brass candle sticks and buckets continue the theme from the big arrangement on the piano. Sometimes hundred yen stores sell wreaths that are in a heart shape. Here strawberries and red ribbon add

Here are some pink variations--pink felt and wood Christmas tree ornaments from the hundred yen store are held by the white bears, or hung on a wreath. The wreath, purchased at Keiyo D2 at Christmas time, is embellished with branches from a white hundred yen Christmas tree, and a pink ribbon from the hundred yen store. The vases and pink floating candles are also from hundred yen stores, as are the rocks that are at the bottom of the vases. The flowers in the window are also from a hundred yen store. The hearts on the wreath are made from an air drying super light weight modeling compound such as Hearty (Karui Kaminendo sold at hundred yen stores) and threaded onto white florist’s wire, also sold at hundred yen stores, craft stores, and florist’s shops.