Monday, March 09, 2015

The fireplace mantle. AKA something fun and pretty

I have a plan!   I have a pinterest board with the "final choices" of looks that I'm going to emulate (read: copy as best as I can, but I suck at decorating and my budget for this is shockingly close to zero, so I'm going to call it "emulate" because it sounds better than "fail to copy effectively")

Here is my "inspiration" (aka: thing I'd ideally like mine to look EXACTLY like, but read above paragraph about lack of decorating talent and coin) (get it..talent and coin...little biblical fun punery for you there, you know you love it)

Ok, here it is:

(found this on Pinterest)

I know!  Gorgeous right!  Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?!?!

...alright, and here's what I've got:



Hmmm...some pretty gorgeous metal work there from Little By Little that I'm seriously in love with, but it's going to live somewhere else, and finally be displayed properly...that's another project, and another post...baby steps here.  Photo gallery art wall thingies are definitely a novice decorating skill, and I'm still at super green, flat out beginner.   

Have I mentioned that I'm pretty good at keeping plants at the brink of death for years at a time, with them neither thriving nor dying.  Ok, some of them die, but some of them just hang on!  Every couple of months I remember they are there, and I water them.  I'll try to be better to you dear resilient plants.   


Anyways, my plan was for a thrify old frame mirror..but it turns out, sometimes it's cheaper and easier (and quicker) to just go to the Target that is closing and buy a mirror on cleanance for $17.99.  YES!  Done.  Score!

Here's what I have now.  It's a work in progress, so please give my green decorator skills some grace. I do think it's a huge improvement though!  


I apparently also need to learn how to take pretty pictures of fireplace mantles, because I promise, it actually looks so much prettier than this!

I still want to change out the plant pots for white pots, get some height working with some of these things (and luckily I have a photo of a look that I love, so I can copy heights of things from there...who knew), and of course, some sort of beautiful piece of driftwood, or more likely, a gnarly piece of deadwood from the farm that I decide to call charming and see if it will pass.   

Oh, here's a picture of it with the candles lit.  I promise, it really IS an improvement in here!  The metal work isn't staying there, it's just there because I have no safe place to store it until I hang it.  Gotta find it's home!


Prettier than before, right?   Not bad for amateur hour over here.   :D

Goodnight!   Go make something a little bit prettier.    Go smile.  Go hug.  

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love your mantel display! When I saw your picture in today's post (with the light fixture) I wondered about a way to boost the mirror to give you more height and play of light. Maybe a pair of sturdy easels used to display pictures or plates? Sort of like these ... I don't know if it really needs it, because I do love the freshness of your display!

Debbie said...

Oh, I really like the easel idea! Hmmm....that's a good one to keep in mind. I've found the mirror to be a wee bit small, but anything bigger was not cheap or on sale :)
I'm hoping that the whole look expands a bit when I get the metal work out of there, and find the right pedestals and pots for my plants, and candles.

...hmmm... easel...oh, that's good!