Two Fall Mantels. And A Mirror

This should be a short post . . . a post where I just share pics of the mantel upstairs and the mantel downstairs.

Short.

Only one problem. I don’t do short posts.

In my own defense, I have two fireplace mantels to decorate.

I’m also the youngest of five children.

I’m thinking it’s the latter that makes me talk so much.

Where was I? Oh yes, the two mantels decorated for Fall.

Almost. Mostly. Sort of.

sigh.

The only time I’m finished decorating is when it’s time to take it all down and put Christmas up.

Ergo, I have a couple of months to finish.

Here’s what I have so far . . .

Starting with the Upstairs -

This is the fireplace. And mantel.

Ok, so it’s a wood burning stove and brick wall but for Fall and Christmas, it’s a fireplace and mantel.

I looked and looked at this corner. I sat down and looked at it. I stood up and looked at it. I looked at it from the dining room, and from the entry.

I was stumped.

Perhaps it didn’t help that when I decided that today is the day it was actually night and the normally dark corner was even darker.

That called for twinkle lights.

The wreath was a no-brainer. I like this wreath.

I must. It’s moved three times with us. Normally I don’t keep any floral decoration from one year to the next. This poor thing is a no-muss/no-fuss wreath that I just throw up every year.

Only this year it was on a wall and not a door.

And it has two dollar store felt leaves behind it.

Just . . . because.

The ledges, aka mantels, were another story.

Mom has had her heart set on a mirror on the left side, the side without the wreath.

More on the mirror in a minute, but since there will be a mirror resting on the ledge mantel one of these days soon I left the lights there and will figure out if it needs any more decoration or not.

Soon.

The basket on the wood burning stove? I dunno. I mean, here is this big black thing, that isn’t going to be used (by us, at least) and it’s just standing there. It needed . . . something.

So I threw in some eucalyptus, fall leaves, a few cattails and some curly willow.

The mantel has the same, with a mini pumpkin and some sinamay ribbon I saved from the wreath overhead.

So far, so good.

Until the mirror makes it’s appearance.

Now, for the downstairs . . .

These bookcases get changed more than I change my clothes.

Well . . . maybe not.

But it is kinda fun, staging and restaging.

Except for a “mantel”.

Once again, there isn’t one.

That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it. I’m not going to mention the shelves that have junk on them, the old posters lying there, and the books that haven’t been evenly placed.

I guess I just did mention it, didn’t I?

Let’s just crop all of that out in Photoshop, shall we?

A little better.

I’m dubbing these shelves my “mantel”. A quick wreath with burlap, wheat, eucalyptus and fall leaves, a new hurricane I got at Target for a steal that has a turquoise candle surrounded by some silk fall leaves (I’m not burning the candle, so it’s safe), and I dug out this apple painting I did a while back.

That’s not a frame. It’s an old fruit crate I got at the thrift store for a couple of bucks.

HappyDanceHappyDance.

This side still needs work, as you can see.

Bookcases are fun because there’s so much room to play around with. But they’re also challenging because there’s so much room . . .

This side is . . . better.

I like the turquoise platter. Thrift store again. So is the wicker pear in front of it.

The french vase hasn’t been painted yet so I wrapped it in a little burlap and threw some, you guessed it, eucalyptus, cattails, and this time, birch branches.

“You could open a flower shop!”

Been there, done that. No thanks.

Not sure about this. At.all. Does it seem . . . doofy? I dunno, there’s an awful lot going on so I’ll see how badly it bugs me over the next couple of days.

I’ll be spending some time in this room.

That big ol’ rectangular thing on my game table, that thing with the straw wreath, fake fruit and a couple rolls of mesh on it?

That’s the mirror.

The mirror that someone gave Mom some years back. The mirror that she paid to have framed. The mirror that has sat behind a door in her bathroom for all the years she’s had it. And then sat in storage when we moved here.

That mirror now has now been painted with a ton of antique bronze. Which was supposed to be the underpainting of a stencil but we both like the bronze so now I’m going to paint some leaves on it.

Or something.

And then I have to have someone come help me move it upstairs, on top of her mantel.

Hopefully before Christmas.

How’s your Fall decorating going? Have you started? Or are you all done?

Colleen

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