Cheap Valentine's Day Decorations

Because I live in a small space, I can't keep a lot of holiday decorations. I have a plastic bin with all my Christmas ornaments and decorations and if I want to decorate for any other holidays, I have to make it work with items I already have around the apartment.

I'm still resisting buying flowers for my dining room table, which is encouraging me to be more creative with my centerpieces. After Christmas, I bought red and ivory candles from Target for 75% off. I've been burning the ivory candles since then, but I pulled out the red candles and some white candles I had from Ikea and arranged them on a silver tray I use for serving food. Candles are instant romance, so I think it's a great, cheap centerpiece for Valentine's Day.

Except for my magnetic grocery list, I keep the front of my fridge clean. I have these alphabet letter that I often use to write little messages to guests or Chuk, which I think is fun and quirky. I used the letter to spell out some seasonal words and phrases. (I know I spelled Valentine's wrong; I've since fixed it, but I didn't want to bother taking another picture.)

Our first Valentine's Day together, Chuk was playing around with some conversation hearts and made up a stream-of-conscience poem from them. I loved it so much I framed it in a shadow box. I have it on our living room bookshelf year round, but I pulled it out and put it on our kitchen counter so it was more noticeable.

On the chalkboard on my kitchen wall, I simply drew a bunch of amateurish hearts. This is my home, not a showplace, so I always try to keep in mind "it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful".

When I bought the 75% off candles at Target after Christmas, I also bought a bunch of bags of red and green peanut M&Ms that were also 75% off.

I separated the red and green M&Ms by color. The bags were only about 1/3 red M&Ms so it looked a little stingy in the vase (saved from my wedding.)

I put half of the green candies in a baggie at the bottom of the base and then put the red M&Ms on top of them so they looked more plentiful.

I decorated the coffee table with the vase of M&Ms, a pink candle I already had, and a heart shaped dish I already had, too. The mints on the dish were leftover from my Gingerbread House Party.

Decorating the main area of my apartment (the open living room, dining area, and kitchen) took about twenty minutes and cost maybe $5 for the discounted candy and candles. Even though it was easy, it made things look really festive, which helped make the day special which was important to me since we were keeping Valentine's Day low-key this year for financial reasons.