Affordable Valentine's Day finds and hints of romantic colors to our home!
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If you've been following thesomedayroom on here and Instagram, you've probably noticed by now that I love a neutral and minimal style for our home. But this is not to say that I don't like tossing in a few colors every now and then. And so, with Valentine's Day approaching, I decided to do bits of red and pink. The only thing was that I had no idea how to begin, so I found myself with multiple tabs open on my laptop with Valentine's Day decor and realized that none of the items would go well together. I had probably six canvas quote arts, a bunch of random heart-shaped objects ranging from bare wooden to bedazzled, several types of garlands, and enough faux florals to make a few bridesmaids' bouquets. As I'm sure you can imagine - I needed to CHILL.
I shut my laptop and stood in front of my window, staring at the blank windowsill - our apartment's main display space. Since I already had lanterns, I was thinking of how I could fill them. Did I want to go the candle route? Perhaps, hang hearts inside? Ehhh...no. I decided to keep the usual filling that I had from my winter holiday decor and that I was going to do a simple XOXO display. Once I had that in mind, it made the process much easier in picking out pieces.
Of course, Target has these cute and affordable pieces for Valentine's Day. I'm not exactly crafty, but I can paint, sometimes. These wooden heart and XOXO kits were perfect both in price and for what I needed to achieve my envisioned window display. I first painted each piece a neutral beige color then put random strokes of white paint on some of the pieces. I went over these with a small foam brush to create that brushstroke effect. Easy and done.
I love a festive garland; Nothing too shiny, but just something that represents the holiday spirit. I knew that I wanted to incorporate love letters but wasn't sure how to go about doing this. Luckily, creators at Target know exactly what they're doing and released this adorable postage stamp garland. All the colors I needed, all the cute-but-not-tacky-look that I was going for, and *purchased*.
After setting up the lanterns, the painted hearts, X's and O's, and hanging the garland, the look was coming together but still needed a few accents. I was between getting floral fillers that were pink and violet, but while those were beautiful, they didn't feel right for our space. I found these Shola flower fillers that have more natural tones, which clearly worked better. There were eighteen flowers of all different sizes, so I thought this would compliment the rest of the decor.
Reminder: Click on any photo to enlarge!
Our two side windows were still bare, and with the main display in the middle, it looked even more empty. Mason can officially reach the top and over the windowsills. I could get away with putting a few objects on our windowsills for the previous holidays, but all of those objects were eventually pushed against the window. I decided to not place any items on the windowsill and opted for a second garland made of burlap hearts. This was the best choice with a busy toddler and was proven as such since Mason has learned that he can place things (toys, books, snacks, etc.) on top of the windowsills. Lastly, I added felt pink mini-hearts to the garland and felt red mini-hearts to the lanterns. I love the way our Valentine's Day window display came out!
Since the windowsill had more colors, I wanted to keep the tabletop decor minimal and neutral-toned. I took out a few of our coffee table books (for our non-existent coffee table) and placed these under my darling marble elephant, Lucy. I like to believe that she's a little good luck charm and she's been with us since our wedding day. I then added some of my vases, the painted wooden hearts, and the flower fillers. For a more personal and little romantic touch, I added two polaroids of B and me (at our friends' wedding, pre-pandemic) and a photo of us on our honeymoon (Australia) to hide the Echo and router.
Again, if you've seen the recent posts on my Instagram, then you've seen this mailbox! It's a plain craft mailbox that I decorated with some paint and extra felt mini-heart stickers! I also found these faux floral stems to put in a couple of the vases. Last but not least, I added my new favorite candle by Voluspa in French Cade Lavender, which I purchased while I was stressed out and on my period.