Homefront: White and Natural Mantel

Are you getting tired of my mantel posts yet? Well, it's been so fun changing them up for all the recent holidays and season changing, so bare with me a little while longer! (ps. I DID clean my mirror, but I am not a streak free master.) If you DON'T have a mantle, you can do this on the middle strip of your kitchen table or coffee table, on top of a cabinet, a dresser, a shelf over a tv or desk....

I am a little tired of my usual aqua and sage green, so I decided to go back to a natural palate. These pretty much all consist of vintage items found through super sleuthing for amazing deals, so I can't complain. The adorable raccoon art I found today for a song, so it had to be featured.

Basically, I decorate, by using the larger pieces on the outsides, and angle them in. Usually, I would put a taller piece in the center, but our mantle is so narrow especially with the frame of the mirror that I only am able to use small accessories. And other times, I leave the middle totally bare and just have a little vignette on the sides.

all four A's, I painted them white, expcept for the largest, which a friend gave to me already painted.

I had all four A's up (one per family member), but removed the center two for less of a clutter look. When I go across the whole mantel, it may look overly crowded because of my smaller pieces, though I still use the remove one (or two) item rule. Just do what works and tweak when you feel the need to get nit picky, but don't stress over it! Who knows, this whole thing may look different tomorrow.

The mantle consists of a painted black finial (is an nasty brassy color underneath), raccoon print, letter A, adorable vintage wood bunny, vintage vase with fresh white roses, vintage mattress spring coil, white lantern, glass jar full of white candlesticks, vintage aladdin inspired brass mini vase, tattered vintage book from my childhood and another large white letter in front of a painted white mirror and white deer bust.

I'm loving the natural elements and wish I still had my fresh picked cotton stems to add as well. Anyone know where I can get some?

*****

And on another note. I decided to take the plunge and do a gallery wall over my couch. I laid out 3 different styles, I would love some input on which you think looks best.

1. aqua and white frames and white letters, the largest grouping

2. minus the aqua frames, medium sized grouping

3. minus the white and aqua frames, smallest grouping (though I think if I use this, I would lose the letters and put the oval frame in their place. (if you are interested on how the frame wall turned out, visit here.)

*Linked to The Nester's Mantle Linky Party,
Just a Girl's How Show and Share Day
at Kimba's of A Soft Place to Land's DIY Day 
Life as Lori's Get your Craft on Thursdays
The Shabby Cottage's Thursday Transformation
Women Who Do it All's Idea Sharin' Wednesday
Tales from Bloggeritaville's Thrifty Thursday
Between naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursdays
Jellybeans & Firefly's Show off your Stuff
Jessica's The Hills are Livin Favorite Things Friday
 It's not here at Life in the Pitt's Creative Therapy, but lots of good ones are.

Colorful Creative Farmhouse

Have you ever seen Kelly Rae's colorful Seattle farmhouse on Apartment Therapy? You can read the interview and see more photos here. It's truly wonderful. Even if it is too colorful for your taste, there is some inspiration to be shared here, that adding whimsical touches of vintage linens, or other treasures can add a spot of character anywhere.

Kelly Rae Roberts is an artist with a book called Taking Flight as well, whose home truly reflects her creative spirit. Her use of bright colors is softened by their reustic distressing and natural colors.

The floors are a light wood, soft colored walls with  crisp white trim, soft air filtering white curtains, lots of white painted furniture and natural greenery makes the space look comfortable and eclectic without feeling cartoon-y. She has a perfect blend of whimsical touchs and vintage collections like her wall letter, alarm clocks, globes, suitcases, tins, floral linens, frames... I adore her use of quirky furniture elements like her wonderful blue church pew. What a fun treasure!

A Garland Will Rise

Easter mantle

This is my minor, yet irritable, yet fixable and I'm okay with that lament. I have one space in which to arrange decorative items that my boys cannot climb and destroy, the only safe surface in my home (besides the top of the refrigerator)is my mantle. (click on images to enlarge for detail)


Halloween mantle

Oh, the IKEA shelf that matches my tv console, you complete me. I have had lots of fun arranging my mantle. I was even about to show it to you because I recently made it so cute!

But, it fell down. Not just fell down, "oh honey let's put this back up".


Christmas mantle

Fell down to the point that now there are gaping holes in the wall and we (as in husband) had to push the wall back together to try and make it flush.


Valentine's mantle

Perhaps I got so overjoyed with some new pieces that I forgot they were a little heavy, and our walls are a little flimsy, and though it was anchored, it wasn't anchored in any studs and that shelf has been there 3 years and all. Surely, this wasn't MY fault then, I ask ;)


Globey mantle

So, what do you do when you have no paint to cover up the mantle's shadow of shame, and no mirrors/paintings... to cover it... and you have guests coming over in a few hours (and you nor the boys nor the house are near ready)?



I took some scraps from the freshly slipcovered pillows on my couches in my room and cut out triangles. I used no pattern, so they aren't perfect, but they are okay.



Then, I hot glued the right side of the fabric to the lower half back of the ribbon.



Once I completed that "task", I pinned some lace on the upper half of the front of the ribbon. Notice, if I had hot glued the fabric to the top half of the ribbon as well, then no pins or sewing needles would be able to go through that.



Now, I hang my little garland. It's not perfect and if you look close, you can see some unpainted wall behind the swoops, but it's purpose was to mask the nasty holes and that it did. Hey, it's temporary, and I like it! I have been aching to make a banner for a while now, but it's amazing how we only do things when we have the need to do it.



All the while, my eldest says, "You make my house pretty?" "You so nice mommy!" "Daddy is going to be so happy!" "You so special, mommy!"

I was given the giant letter A already painted white by a friend, and I remembered I had 2 smaller A's, so I threw them up there. Isaac helped pass me the letters as I balanced on a chair and painted the fronts while they hung on the wall. Yeah, I do that.



The metal scroll I got at a garage sale and beautified it with layers of blues, greens and white paint.

The white paint was almost gone so it made all types of squirting noises.
"Sounds like Isaac going poo-poo!" my son exclaimed happily.

I gave my eldest the leftover white to hide the nasty hole where we banged up the wall in the hallway moving furniture.



Then, he begged for more colorful paint and I let him paint on the wall he vandalized a couple of months ago. This wall can be his! (He did get carried away and painted the faux grout lines on the kitchen floors, but really, nothing could make those apartment laminate floors look any worse.)



You can see more project show off at Between Naps on a Bench's weekly post, Metamorphosis Monday and even more at Kimba's A Soft Place to Land DIY Day! Do you have any crazy quick fixes? How long did that temporary quick fix end up staying there?