Fall Mantle: Fist Bump I Only Spent $6.41 on this Bad Boy!

I wrapped up decorating my fall mantle this week and there are two amazing points to this statement. 

First, I must note for the first time in my life I actually didn't wait to dig out my fall decorations ten seconds before fall was over and secondly, I only spent $6.41 to put this bad boy together. Can I get a hallelujah!

As some of you know, our fireplace had a Joan River's style face lift last fall (thankfully, ours came out looking much better than hers). So I was super duper excited to decorate this year.

The "fall is in the air" twig sign was a DIY project I shared with you all a few days ago.

The lanterns were from Kirkland's Home (I think...they were purchased years ago).

Mr Owl was a gift from my dad last Christmas. Something my parents found on one of their many travels around the country. I love that dang owl. Of course, I realize in real life owls are typically bigger than lanterns and pumpkins but this is an itty bitty, magical owl PEOPLE!

I found the fall garland at Michael's for half off.

The beaded garland was a fun find at Goodwill a few weeks ago.

I found three strands each for just forty-seven cents.

They were Christmas garland but I brought them home and prettied them with some spray paint.

The large white monogrammed pumpkin I made last year with some scrapbook paper.

The little white pumpkin was from Michael's and the taupe pumpkin was a Dollar Store pumpkin that I antique glazed last fall as well. The wooden stool is something that has been sitting on my project-to-do-list for weeks now. I'm going to make it over for Baby B but I haven't decided on what the heck I'm doing with it yet. So in the mean time, it serves as a wonderful pumpkin base.

So there you have it....my first attempt at decorating a mantle for fall. 

I'm really pleased with how simple and aetestically clean it looks.

But I'm doublisicious excited that I was able to decorate by using a lot of stuff I already had lying around the house. Now it's on to the front porch! Have you started decorating for fall yet?

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Gettin Twiggy With It: DIY Twig Sign for Fall Mantle

It's almost embarrassing how excited I am that I get to decorate a mantle this fall. Some of you may recall that time we had that atrocious booger colored fireplace in our living room. 

You can refresh your memory here and then like you did with Miley Cyrus's VMA butt cheeks quickly try to forget it EVER happened.

Well, I was so eager to get started that I actually spent some time this weekend making this fall twig sign for above the fireplace. 

Let me just start off by saying planning out a fall mantle is a lot of pressure.

I must of stared at this fireplace for what felt like an eternity trying to figure out what the heck I was suppose to do. Since running errands & shopping with a seven week old baby is kind of like coordinating a NASA shuttle launch I really, really wanted to utilize items I had hanging around the house. 

A quick venture down to our basement turned up these guys.

I bought these stick thingamajigs many years ago at Ikea to use for a large vase on one of our plant ledges. The extra bunch of sticks have since then been sitting around collecting dust, and spider eggs, and other weird things I don't want to know about.

I decided it was about time I put them to good use and that is when I thought it would be cool if I broke them down into letters and made a fall sign. 

After picking out what quote I wanted to use { "Fall is in the air" I know really original, right?}I just simply started cutting my letters from the sticks using a pair of pruning shears. 

Then I spray painted the letters three different colors; chocolate brown, sage, and a mellow yellow.

I grabbed a piece of left over wood we had lying around in our garage and then with wood glue started adhering the letters. Really, it was that simple!

I just love when projects are FREE and you use up stuff that has been sitting around your house.

I can't wait to finish up the rest of my fall mantle and of course you know I'll share with you all when I do because that's how I roll.

Have you started fall decorating yet? Do you tend to decorate more for fall in general or do you split it and decorate for fall and then switch it up for Halloween?

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Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: 8 Fireplace Decorating Ideas

Last week I finally found the ONE. That's right I fell madly, deeply in love.

It's funny how you can just be minding your business walking along the aisles of your local Home Good's store when BOOM there it is,the thing

you've been waiting for...........the mirror of your dreams.

 

Ever since our fireplace remodel has been completed I have been

brainstorming a few possibilities for the mantle decor.

Here are a few ideas that I tossed in bed at night thinking about

{because these are BIG issues people}

 

* Large, ornate, square mirror

* Gallery wall of framed black and white family pictures in a grid format

* Large piece of art work

*Two square pieces of art work side by side

* Large round mirror

* Large painted portrait of me lying on a chaise petting a ferret

 

I quickly narrowed it down to the round mirror idea:

* Large, ornate, square mirror Too predictable

* Gallery wall of framed black and white familt pictures in a grid format

Is it just me or when you are childless does it feel like you can only stand hanging so many pictures of just you and your hubby and your dogs before it just starts to become weird??

* Large piece of art work We'd all be dead by time I found

art work that I thought was perfect for the room.

*Two square pieces of art work side by side See previously mentioned problem.

* Large round mirror

* Large painted portrait of me lying on a chaise petting a ferret

Ferrets scare the crap out of me.

 

And so my round mirror adventures began.........

Most of the time I would find myself in the mirror aisle thinking to myself "This mirror is too small" and then I'd go to the next store and say "This mirror is too big!".

And then I laid eyes on this beaut and I thought "Ahhh.....this mirror is just right!"

And yes, oddly enough my discussions with myself do sound alot like Goldilocks.

 

 

The hubby hung the mirror for me this weekend.

It may not look like it but this puppy is HEV-VEE-EY.

Guesstimate? 75 lbs.

FYI- if you plan on hanging a a heavy weight champ on your wall any time soon we strongly recommend these E-Z Ancor Toggle Locks. You can find them at your local hardware stores.

 

Source

 

 And then do as we did and say a prayer to the dry wall heavens above that this mini elephant won't come tumbling down in the middle of the night.

 

Tall ceilings are gorgeous but a room with alot of high walls can be a pain in the arse to decorate.

That is why scale is so important because if you pick wall decor that is too small or just an average size chances are it is going to get lost in the room.

I learned this quickly after first picking up a 33" round oil-bronzed mirror.

It look like the window on a submarine when I held it up against the wall.

Not exactly what I was aiming for.

 

 

Oh and that little owl who stands guard?

That was a Christmas gift from my dad from a artsy store back in their hometown.

Isn't he precious?

For the time being that is where he'll stay until I figure out the rest of the arrangement in the room.

 

 

 

 

Now for the next fun part.....decorating the mantle around the mirror.

Of course I've been gathering up tons of pinspiration so here are a few of my favorite round mirror fireplace decorating ideas so far.

Bloglines.com | Better Homes & Gardens| It's Always Something| Houzz

 

Coco Cozy | House Beautiful | Elle Decor | Decor Pad

 

What's your favorite type of mantle decor?  Mirrors? Art work? Wreaths?

 

 

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Fireplace Remodel: The Before & the Happily Ever After

So for those of you who have been hanging around my side of the hood for awhile it is no secret how much I hated our fireplace. Back in November I shared the start of some renovations we were doing around here; painting, putting in wood floors, replacing the floor boards,

AND bringing down this monstrosity.

Seriously, it was giving fireplaces every where a bad rep.

For the most part I chose to neglect this room since the day we moved in because well.....I didn't want to try to decorate around this green-eye monster.

The sad part about this whole story is that this is the first room you see when you enter our house so for the past five years I've been making our guest come in through a back window. 

Eventually people just stopped coming over.

 

Lucky for us we have a friend in the hood who is an independent carpenter and over the holidays he built us this beautiful mantle that makes me squeal like a young Justin Beiber fan.

Those wood floors aren't bad either, eh?

 

Originally, we were just going to replace the tiles and add a mantle but the fireplace gods must have been looking out for us because then I saw this beaut on the internet and my soul was sold on building something from scratch.  Well, not me but the neighbor.

Source

 

It's like they're twins! I think he did such a great job replicating my dream mantle.

 

The best part? He finished up literally twenty minutes before our guest arrived for our family get-together back in December! It was like a Christmas miracle.

Here are a few other "before" and "after" views of the room

after we put away the holiday decor {well, most of it}.

Mind you I haven't done much more in this room in terms of decorating.

Alot of the pillows and knick knacks are from the old room mixed in with a few things I have bought for the new colors{greys, neutrals, and yellows}.

I shared my inspiration board for this room makeover here.

 

BEFORE

 

AFTER

Don't mind that nativity scene sitting on our window bench.

I'm sure we'll pack it away some time before Memorial Day.

In the mean time, the Baby Jesus in that manger has been serving as great prop

to rest my cards against when taking pictures for my shop.

It doesn't get any holier than that my friends.

 

BEFORE

 

AFTER

The rug was a new purchase from Rugs USA.

It's an outdoor/indoor rug but we really don't need anything plush in this room considering we don't spend alot of time in here and it's easy to clean which is a big plus with the

 two doxies roaming around here.

I scored  it for  just $90 buckaroos during one of their recent sales.

High five to me!

 

So there you have it, progress on room makeover # 2

{ I shared our other living room makeover here}.

I still have ALOT more to do..... like figure out which furniture layout

I prefer more, decide on a color/pattern for the window seat cushion, get rid of that clunky looking coffee table, replace the pillows, add some wall art,

and lastly figure out how the heck I want to decorate that mantle?

I'll get back to ya about that in 2022.

Stay tuned.

 

Any new renovations or makeovers in your home lately?

 

 

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