Fresh flowers are a great addition to any room, especially in the dead of winter when catching a glimpse of them outside isn’t an option. Today we outfit a whole house with fresh flowers for $12.

Last December we shared a tip from Redbook magazine on how to stretch a basic mixed bouquet of flowers to fill many vases and spaces in your home. They suggested buying an inexpensive bundle of mixed flowers and dividing the flowers up into variety of small and large vases to make one bouquet serve the function of a dozen or more.

We headed down to our local grocer—no fancy stop at the florist here!—and grabbed one of their $12 mixed flower bouquets.

We already had a variety of vases on hand so we weren’t out any expense there, but even if you don’t have a variety on hand simple glass vases are extremely cheap: the bud vases we used were $3.99 for a pack of four, the cobalt blue vase and clear glass vase were less than $10, and the cut-crystal vase was an inexpensive antique store find. Thirty bucks in the home and housewares section of Target or any other big box retailer will score you more vases than you’ll know what to do with.

We did our best to follow the tip we highlighted from the Redbook article:

Start with one flower that combines two hues – such as the red and yellow carnation – then add a few blooms of varying textures and heights in the same shades, says New York City florist Rebecca Cole.

While we didn’t strictly follow the rule we did separate out some hardy flowers like carnations and mums to put into the bud vases and then separated the rest of the flowers into red/yellow, yellow-on-yellow, and a mixture of the remaining flowers in the final vase.

One of the perks of using a bud vase with a long lasting flower is that you can tuck them in places where you wouldn’t normally have fresh flowers. Under your monitor, tucked beside your tooth brush cup, beside your keys on your landing strip, bud vases are so small they can be placed where a full vase of flowers would be over powering, strange looking, or impractical.

For $12 we ended up with three large vases and five bud vases full of flowers and we could have easily stretched it further by using skinnier vases and more bud vases. If you’re looking for a great way to add some color and life to your home—especially to impress house guests!—you’d be hard pressed to do it in a less expensive way.

Have your own tip or trick for dressing up your home without emptying your wallet? Let’s hear about it in the comments. If you’ve taken pictures of your DIY exploits, flower-related or otherwise, make sure to submit a picture to the Lifehacker Tips Tester pool on Flickr or send an email to tips at lifehacker.com.

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