The Most Beautiful Valentine's Day Decorating Ideas for Your Home

Why wear your heart on your sleeve when you can display it on your wall? This Valentine's Day, spruce up your home with our best decorative ideas from pretty flower arrangements to romantic candle displays. Whether you're hosting an intimate dinner for two, a Galentine's Day party with all of your friends, or even spending a quiet afternoon at home while you're stamping out valentines by the dozen, these ideas will serve as inspiration for your neighbors, true loves, and best friends on Valentine's Day.

It's a holiday that's characteristically clichéd, and yet, it's easily elevated to suit a modern aesthetic with sophisticated details. Use favorite photos to personalize a few everyday objects. It's not just a box or a sticker or a makeup case—it's a custom keepsake brimming with family history and happy memories. Instagram makes for instant art when snapshots are arranged on the wall to spell out "LOVE." Old-fashioned ideas still have their charm, especially when they're revamped in modern style: Carnations, bleached amaranth, and fluffy garden roses make for giftable floral arrangements. And while these fresh blooms certainly play a part, it's the loose, ethereal arrangements spilling out of vintage apothecary bottles or other vessels, at once humble, dreamy, and utterly Parisian, that appeal to us. Even zip-ties and paper doilies, small and simple as they may be, can be locked into hearts for a garland or table runner that the kids can help make and display.

Not only will you impress guests, but you'll have everyone ready for the holiday of love even before it arrives.

Sorbet-hued blooms hit just the right note for Valentine's Day, and with colors this subtle, you can mix and match them as you please. We chose garden roses from David Austin Roses with petals more ruffly than the standard sort—an effect made even sweeter thanks to their lovely scent.

Shop Now: David Austin "The Lady Gardener" English Rose, $28.50, davidaustinroses.com. Middle Kingdom Dusty Pink Mini "Apple" Vase, $21, minzuu.com, Ladurée L'incontournable Assorted Macarons, $42.20 for 12, laduree.com.

Instagrams make instant art. For this quadtych, select 44 photos (look for ones that have a recurring color scheme, such as the general palette of blues shown here), and print them all as 2 1/4-inch squares. (If you use Printstagram to print from Instagram, they will automatically be this size.) Download and print the template for laying them out on four floating frames. The project is easy enough that you can update the photos seasonally.

Shop Now: Social Print Studio Mini Square Photos, $15 for 48, socialprintstudio.com. Muji Acrylic Picture Frames, 14.5" by 19.5", $6.50 each, muji.us.

Instead of a full bouquet, craft a delicate arrangement under glass. (Small carnations, sweetheart roses, fern fronds, and begonia leaves add up to a lovely arrangement.) First, place floral clay on the bottom of a flower-pin frog to secure it inside a small, sturdy cup. Fill the cup three-quarters full with water. Set a glass cloche next to it, so you know how high the blooms can be. Then cut flowers and greenery and stick them onto the pins. To finish, set the cup on a plate and cover it with the cloche. Check the water daily—the display can last about a week.

Shop Now: Ashland Glass Bell Dome, $26, michaels.com. TinaWood Kenzan Ikebana Flower Frog Pin, 1.4", $8.86, amazon.com.

The wooden feet that support modern sofas tend to have simple, sculptural shapes, making them well worth elevating from floor to mantel. To customize them into holders for taper candles, look for streamlined versions in unfinished wood at the home-improvement store, then play around with height and color combinations.

Use a C clamp to secure a piece of scrap wood to your work surface. Make a pilot hole in wood. Turn a furniture foot upside down and screw into the scrap wood (foot should come with a screw). Attach a 1-inch flat boring bit to drill and make a shallow hole in the foot. Insert a brass candle cup into the hole. Unscrew foot from scrap wood; remove screw with pliers. Dilute paint (2 parts paint and 1 part water) to make a colorful wash that will allow wood grain on the furniture foot to show through. Paint the foot as desired; let dry. For the stacked candleholder, pictured at left, use the screw on a second foot to attach to the candleholder. Put a taper candle into the candle cup.

Shop Now: Waddell Furniture Feet, $11 each, homedepot.com. Woodworks Ltd. Brass Candle Cup Inserts, $2 for 10, craftparts.com. Martha Stewart Crafts Multi-Surface Craft Paint, $2.49 for 2 oz., michaels.com. 

At her annual Valentine's Day sock hop, Jessie Randall loved the results of the heart fashioned from folded tissue-paper blossoms so much, she never took it down. Our instructions make a heart about four feet by four feet. You won't need as many kits if you're decorating a smaller area.

What's a party without the balloons? This lavish garland is pictured cascading over the fireplace with XOXO's, kissy lips, hearts, and LOVE lettering mylar balloons from Northstar Balloons. Atop the mantel sits a row of framed artworks depicting pouted lips, gold foil hearts, and positive messages like, "You're Like Really Pretty."

Turn a bunch of neon zip ties into a festive garland for a quick, kid-friendly Valentine's Day decoration. First, close the zip tie so that the tail is on the inside, and then pinch the bottom to make the point. Loop the hearts together as you go.

Shop Now: Gardner Bender Assorted Fluorescent Cable Ties, $9.24 for 100, homedepot.com.

Floral designers at Prudence Designs & Events in New York City use a birch-bark vase and a wood-burning tool to mimic the romance of initials carved into a tree trunk. To duplicate the look, start with a store-bought birch-bark vase, draw your design in pencil, and trace the lines with a heat tool or brown permanent marker.

Shop Now: Richland Birch Bark Pot, $15, amazon.com. Walnut Hollow Creative Woodburner Pen and Special Technique Points, $12.75, amazon.com.

A table set in rosy hues for a weeknight Valentine's Day dinner whispers of romance. Start with a centerpiece of red and pink garden roses, crocosmia, miniature ranunculus, pepperberries, and festival-bush flowers. Fill flutes with rosé Champagne, and place a "love letter" napkin at each setting. To make the fold: With a point of the napkin facing you, fold the left and right corners to the center. Fold the bottom third up and the top third down over it, like a flap.

Whoever said florals were table-bound? Romantic blooms like charm peonies, garden roses, and tulips bring a still life to real life in this modern three-dimensional display.

Let your love sparkle! This pink and red banner uses three colors of glitter to create an ombré effect and the script banner is a solid gold glitter. Both are made by cutting the letters from a foam board in the shape of lettering, coated with decoupage adhesive, and finished with the gorgeous glitter colors. 

Shop Now: Elmer's Foam Board, 20" by 30", $7, michaels.com. Mod Podge Satin, $7 for 8 oz., michaels.com. Martha Stewart Fine Glitter Set, $19.47, amazon.com.

A heavenly décor idea is brought down to earth with a few natural—albeit, ethereal—elements: baby's breath, skeleton leaves, and ornamental pampas grass. The table itself is set with gold candlesticks, white tapers, and crystal goblets.