By late January or early February, it’s definitely time for the Christmas lights and decorations to be taken down and put away. But if your home’s exterior seems a little plain now that the holiday frills are gone, you may want to dress it up a little by decorating for the next holiday, Valentine’s Day. You can clean up your home’s exterior and add some fun holiday touches with these exterior decorating tips.

Preparation

Before you put any new decorations up, you will want to spend some time making sure that your home’s exterior is clean and in good repair. It’s difficult to clean or fix anything around lights and decorations, so in the time between taking down one set of decorations and putting up the next set, it’s important to do some maintenance.

This is the time to sweep the porch and check for any loose floor boards. You’ll also want to check your roof for any damage or loose shingles caused by winter storms or heavy holiday decorations. This is also a good time to check your gutters. Gutters can easily get choked with leaves and debris during winter storms, which can prevent water from flowing freely and cause damage to your roof and gutter systems. Your best bet is to have a gutter shield installed that will prevent debris from building up in your gutters in the first place – then you’ll be able to move straight on to the decorating.

Flowers

There’s nothing quite like flowers when it comes to decorating for Valentine’s Day. You can plant the flowers in your yard, or buy potted plants that you can display on your porch and in the front of your house.

Some of the best flowers for Valentine’s Day include roses, orchids, tulips, lilies, and hydrangeas. However, if you want to mix something different into the blooms, you might want to display a dwarf jade bonsai tree or a few cactuses in colorfully painted pots.

If you’re not in an area where you can easily grow real early spring flowers for Valentine’s Day, don’t hesitate to take advantage of quality artificial flowers. You might be surprised at how real artificial ivy, daffodils, and pansies can look when artfully arranged on your porch. You should also use the hardier fake flowers to make wreath arrangements that can be brought back out year after year without losing their color.

Lights

Who says that colored lights are only for the winter holidays? Valentine’s Day is a great reason to decorate with lights. Don’t be lazy and just leave your Christmas lights in place, though. Choose strings of pink, red, and white lights to string across your porch or roof. Or replace the white lightbulb in your porch light with a bulb that gives off pink or purple light instead.

Decorations

Outdoor decorations for Valentine’s Day are easy. Make some painted bird houses in Valentine’s colors and put them in your garden – not only will they brighten up your garden, they’ll also attract colorful birds that will beautify your yard and help pollinate your flowers.

You can make wind chimes from strings of metallic hearts that you can pick up at a craft shop. If floral wreaths don’t appeal to you, consider making a Valentine’s wreath with yarn pompoms. You don’t even need a wreath form for this easy craft – you can attach the pompoms to a wire hanger stretched into a circular shape. You’ll be able to hang the wreath from the hangar hook.

The only limit to the Valentine’s Day decorations is your own imagination. Don’t feel like you have to have a plain home exterior after the holidays – take the time to dress it up. For more tips on keeping your home beautiful, contact us.

Written by Del Thebaud