Inspired Design: The Mantle

Change Up

It was past time to update our mantle look. It had been sitting really kind of bare and neglected since I took down our Christmas stuff.  Yes. I said since I took down my Christmas stuff. I know, right?

Now, don't get me wrong, there were a few things on it, but nothing that I had really taken time to pick out or arrange. Just things that didn't happen to be so Christmassy that I had to remove them. They were there by default.

It's not exactly how I'd like it. Then again, what is?

I love the picture above the mantle, but it doesn't really have the right scale. So, I tried a really nice mirror that I found at Goodwill last year. Looked great except for the fact, it reflected my still unfinished kitchen beam areas which are, quite frankly, hideous. We don't have to go there, do we?

So down with the mirror and back up with the picture for lack of anything better at the moment.  Then I went around the house pulling things from other places.

The barometer my father made for Garrett in 1989 according to the brass plate. 

My rusty ship bookend I nabbed for free at my neighbor's yard sale. It's really a pair but I just used one, next to some driftwood from our beach and a picture I've had for a long time of a young girl that always reminded me of one of my nieces in Ireland.

Love that rusty old ship. Perfect just the way it is.

My copper-looking mercury glass 'cups' which I thought were candle holders, but I've lost two to votives making them too hot to the point of explosion. I only put battery operated votives in the two I have left.

At the left flank, standing guard, my Staffordshire dog that was my grandparents. He's not real Staffordshire. At least he doesn't appear to be.  Call me crazy, but I used to pretend he was a real pet when I stayed at their apartment.

On the other end, a pretty antique print I got years ago of a girl mending her skirt that she's wearing. It was a present from my parents....well, I bought it with money they gave me for my birthday one year. Same thing, right?  On either side of her, a funky plaque I got at Salvation Army last year.....for a song, and my grandmother's crystal and silver candle stick.

I just couldn't quite settle on things yesterday. I think it had to do with the size of the main picture. It could still use something on either side of the picture. If you have any suggestions, I'm listening. All in all though, I can live with it until the next mantle change up.

Excuse the ash on the stove front and wood mess on the hearth. These are the things that happen when you actually use your wood stove to heat your house. The boots are another thing altogether.

As you can see, our mantle is actually quite small in width and depth and about as plain as it could be. Just a 2 x 4 really, which of course limits my options.  Someday it might get a complete overhaul.

Do you have a mantle that you change up? I only really started doing that last year and it is a fun way of making things a little fresher to look at. Read: it gets a little boring looking at the same old stuff all the time.

How was your weekend? Ours was filled with old friends on Friday night and a three-way skype-a-thon, movie night on Saturday, a Bruins win and then a tough loss to our rivals the Canadiens....at home....but it was scrappy which made me happy regardless, and a visit to the neighbor's campfire yesterday, complete with s'mores. Actually, I just went for a piece of chocolate.

By the way, we watched Argo Saturday night and I thought it was very, very good. The story acutally really made my stomach turn, thinking back to the hostage crisis and imagining what these people when through and how absolutely frightful it must have been. So sad that there is so much hate in the world.

On that note, I bid you adieu. Until tomorrow.

Ciao for now,