Looking for an easy way to add romance to your Valentine’s day table? Just add ribbon & lace!

Here are a few examples I mocked up recently to demonstrate how just a little lace & ribbon can give a simple vase, pillar candle, or tablecloth a romantic vibe that’s perfect for Valentine’s Day (or a sexy lingerie-themed wedding shower!).

There are 3 kinds of lace pictured in these examples – a wide black style with a scalloped edge, a fun red style with rhinestone detailing, and a narrower black velvet style. All of them were purchased at Joann Fabric & Crafts. (Lace styles will vary based on what’s available at your local fabric stores.)

Example #1

In the example at the very top, a band of black lace is wrapped around a white ceramic vase filled with pretty red ranunculus, which have a soft, feminine look to them. The flower arrangement is displayed on a square white tray lined with black velvet scrapbook paper and decorated with red satin ribbon & velvet lace.

For the finishing touch, these cool red acrylic tea light holders from Social Couture were placed in each corner of the tray and embellished with adhesive-backed red craft rhinestones (which are super easy to add/remove).

This next arrangement is one of my favorites:

Example #2

For this one, you’ll need a square white ceramic vase, one brick of floral foam wet, red ribbon, black lace, and red and white flowers. (White China Mums, tinted-red spider mums, and red & white gerberas are used here.)

DIY: Soak the floral foam and trim to fit snugly within the vase. Trim the stems of the China mums (or another white flower) to fit within the vase, then insert them into the wet foam, covering it completely. Because China mums are so big and fluffy, I only needed to use 4 blooms here.

Next, insert a few stems of the red and white flowers through the mums and into the foam, which will keep them nice and stable and give you good control over their placement.

Last but not least, embellish the vase with a band of red satin ribbon topped with black lace so that some of the red peeks through.

Example #3

This next example features candles instead of flowers… and we all know how well candlelight goes with romance!

DIY: For this type of look you’ll need glass cylinder vases, candles (floating or pillar) ribbon, lace, and some sort of vase filler (like the white sand and black rocks pictured here). Decorate the vases to your liking then fill them with floating candles, pillar candles… or even a single floral stem (as seen in image #2, above).

Example #4

This last example shows how pretty lace-adorned vases look when arranged in a trio. Use different styles of lace and varying heights of vases to add the most interest. I also like to keep the flower arrangements monochromatic for a contemporary look, but of course you can mix and match to your liking.

P.S. Another great way to utilize lace is as a table runner. Wide styles can be used as a runner all by themselves, or you can use thinner lace to trim the edges of a regular table runner or length of fabric.

P.S.S. If you’re wondering about the cool Black Baroque Photo Frame pictured in image #2 (which I embellished with a few adhesive red rhinestones), I purchased it a while back at shopplasticland.com. I haven’t seen the black version there lately, but they still have them available in Silver and Red. If anyone knows where the black version is still available, please let us know!

Hope this gets your creative juices flowing! Stay tuned for Part 2 of Red, Black, & Lace… coming soon!