We moved to this, our new home, almost a year ago; and, having a fireplace with a very large mantel is really a gift for me. I love the idea of decorating it, and I enjoy looking at all the beautiful ideas on Pinterest. Pictures can be very inspiring but also overwhelming. I don’t let myself get too wrapped up in stuff like this. Well, I try.
I decided that I would go through the things in my house to see if I could fix up the mantel with what I already have. I’m not opposed to buying a few things if they are cheap and reasonable, but it’s best if I don’t have to right now. So, today I decorated my mantel with what I have. Want to see it?
The Before
There isn’t much happening on the mantel in The Before picture. I brought up some baskets I had, candles and other miscellaneous things. I replaced the huge picture with my seasonally fashionable large basket.
The After
I also found an empty picture frame and some ting-ting, those long gold curly sticks. I shortened them in length and stuck them in the floral arrangement and my cream colored pitcher in the background.
Adding the ting-ting makes the overall appearance more interesting, in my opinion. It gives varied height to the overall display.
Another thing that adds to the visual interest is to layer. I layered my items by putting the empty frame behind a basket and the candles out in front.
Those candle holders were wedding gifts 13 years ago. I poured multi-colored popcorn kernels alternating with regular yellow kernels into them and then topped with the candles.
I had that glass bowl floral arrangement and stacked it on an empty votive holder (which has that cracked look). Stacking the two gives some more added height to my overall presentation.
I’m actually very happy with the way it turned out. I’d like my next decorating project to be my dining room table. The tricky part will be figuring out how to do what I want with it and still keep the table useable during the day.
Do you have a mantel you’ve decorated for fall? If you’ve shared about it on your blog, please leave your link so I can come see it!
