Mantel Possibilities

One of the many areas (and there are many!) I love about my home are the two fireplaces and their mantels.  I have never truly had a proper mantel before and now I have two of them!  Mantels are one of the easiest ways to add color, impact, and a focal point to a room. Plus, they are so fun to change up for the season or holiday.  Old windows, which I found at a local store, are the perfect size for my mantel. Plus, they can be utilized in so many ways. 

This is my fall mantel and after living with it for a few days I felt it needed a little something. While perusing pinterest for ideas, I came across a burlap swag and I knew it would go perfectly with my fall decor.  I had all the supplies on hand, so I cut up a billion a lot of burlap strips and tied them to a long strand of twine.

Daughter  number one's birthday.

I really like the texture that it added (my husband was iffy on the burlap). It may be a bit trendy, but it worked great for 2013!


My other mantel is in our tv room, but it doesn't get a make-over as frequently as the family room mantel.  The tv room sees a lot of kids, it's out of the way from other areas of the house, so most of the time it looks mostly like the picture below.

 

I found the old, green window screen at a garage sale about 12 years ago, and it has moved three times with me. I love old salvaged pieces from buildings.

 

At Christmastime I had fun turning our mantels into festive holiday displays.

 

Having a blog about my home wasn't in the works at Christmastime, so I had to dig through quite a bit of media to find a picture of my mantel.  It wasn't easy to find a good picture, so the quality of these are really quite blurry, sorry!

 

This is a view from Christmas Eve.  I had greenery, red berries, and a cute little reindeer on the end.  And again, the old windows worked for this display too.

The tv room mantel is where we hung our stockings for Santa.

Again, the picture is of another picture, but you get the idea :) 

Mantels are great for birthdays too!  Especially holding up signs for the birthday girl!

My current family room mantel was put together in March when I was done with winter and wanted something a little springier, is that a word? 

This is a picture of our first home that we purchased in 1997.  I thought it looked like a vintage photo printed in a sepia tone.  The house is over 100 years old, but the picture was just made to look old and printed out on my home printer. Hanging it on twine with mini-clothespins added another layer of texture, but also added some whimsy.  Seeing it everyday is a great reminder of how we started off in our home as a tiny family of three, and now we are a family of 7!  What a wonderful way to remember the blessings I have in my life!  

On the other end of the mantel are two wooden birdhouses that have moved with me from our old house.  The little tiny couple inside the church birdhouse was actually the topper on my wedding cake.  The kids think it's funny, so they hang out there. 

I'm not sure how long I'll live with the current mantel.  I like to change things up without having to redecorate my home every few weeks, and a mantel space is perfect for changing the look of a room without spending any money.  Most of the time I shop my own home for items to group together.  I can get my decorating fix whenever I feel the need to redecorate without making my husband see $$.