Thanksgiving Mantel

Our fall mantel this year is a mixture of rustic-ness and elegance.

Kind of an odd combination, I know, but it works for us.

It all started when I saw a sign similar to the one below in a local shop, 

for way too much money.

I knew I could make the sign myself for much less moolah.

And as it turned out, it ended up being totally free!

There are currently a bunch of new houses being built in our neighborhood and the builder had piles of scrap wood sitting out, waiting to be disposed of.

So I rummaged though the piles, found some scraps, made a few cuts, and nailed my sign together.

I already had some Minwax Early American stain in the garage, 

which I used to coat my sign twice.

Then I used my good ol' white paint pen to fill in all of the letters.

That's it. Not a penny spent.

The book page wreath was something I made last year (using THIS fabulous tutorial). 

The two mercury glass pumpkins were Costco finds (a few months back) as were the flameless battery operated candles (which I love!).

The glass pillar candle holders were from Ikea.

And speaking of DIY projects, I thought I'd share this chalkboard sign that hangs on our front porch to welcome guests. 

It was made using an old white cabinet door found at Habitat for Humanity ReStore. 

All I did was paint the center with chalkboard paint and added the rope to hang it.

Can you believe Thanksgiving is only 2 weeks away!?

Linking up to:

Delightful Order: Delightfully Inspiring Party

The Shabby Creek Cottage: Transformation Thursday 

My Repurposed Life: Catch as Catch Can

Spring Mantel

Ah, spring, glorious spring. 

It's been a loooooooooonnng winter here in the Pacific NW. I've been so eager for spring this year that our mantel has actually looked like this since January, when I took down all of the Christmas stuff.

The sun finally showed its face today so I was able to get some pictures of our mantel while we actually had some natural light shining in the windows.

Nothing fancy, just a few vintage finds and some little pops of greenery. The candles, glass pillar candle holders, and faux greenery were from Ikea; everything else were finds from the antique & vintage shops here in Snohomish.

The art niche in our front entry received a coat of SW Comfort Gray to give it some interest. I paired an arched metal mirror with a white pitcher from Ikea filled with pussy willow branches to give it a little spring flair.

Now if we could just get the weather to be a little more spring-y, I'd be one happy gal.

Christmas Mantel 2011

I'm a little behind the game on posting about our Christmas mantel this year, so let's just pretend I'm fashionably late :)

This year I wanted to incorporate hints of red, yet keep it budget-friendly by using stuff I already had. So here is what I came up with...

I almost always have the mirrors and the shutters up on the mantel, so I just kept them up. 

The book page wreath is one I made a while back using a tutorial from Jones Design Co.  

The lanterns are from Ikea and were only $7.99 each. They were originally black, so I spray painted them cherry red and filled them with some extra ornaments and pinecones we already had.

All of the glass hurricanes were purchased from Ikea a few months back and I just added some red gingham ribbon to a couple of them using double stick tape.

And last, I made the red Christmas sign using a leftover board (from some other project) and some red and white paint.

I purchased all of the stockings last year. The embroidered ones on the ends are from Pottery Barn and the 3 smaller ones in the middle were from Target. To label them with the kids' initials, I made tags using round scrapbook tags, red scrapbook paper and some glitter and tied them on with some gold ribbon.

 

Cheap. Simple. Festive. My kind of mantel.

Linking up to:

Addicted 2 Decorating
Fingerprints on the Fridge 
Hooked on Houses Holiday House Tour 
The Inspired Room's Christmas Home Tour 
Ten June's Christmas Cheer Link Party 
The Corson Cottage Home for the Holidays Link Party 
Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Night Special 
Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap Up Party 
Be Different Act Normal Show and Tell Saturday

'A Nod to Fall' Mantel

I don't know what it is this year, but I'm having a really hard time embracing Fall.

Maybe it's because we never really had a summer here in the Pacific Northwest - my hydrangeas never even bloomed!

Maybe it's because I'm just not in love with the orange and red fall colors.

Whatever it is, though, I just could not bring myself to put out my usual Fall decorations this year.

So instead, I am giving just 'A Little Nod to Fall' on our mantel this year.

Who knows, maybe as the season progresses I'll bring out more of the orange and red stuff, but for now, this is as fall-ish as the mantel's gonna get.

I wanted to create a subtle fall display that didn't scream FALL. To achieve this, I layered together natural textures, warm hues, and a variety of vintage finds.

I found a small, weathered old window at an antique shop and had some mirrors cut at Lowe's that I glued onto the back.

The FALL banner was made using white cardstock paper that I cut into small rectangles with rounded corners and stained using a tea bag that had been steeped in water. Then I cut out the black letters on my Cricut and glued them on. To hang it, I just taped twine to the back of the papers.

Many of the pieces used on my mantel were things I already had around the house...like the little #3 tin planter with an Ikea faux plant inside, old books, and a white pumpkin bought at Michael's on clearance last year.

The wooden spools were from an antique store and the wooden pumpkins sitting atop were from Ben Franklin last year...and a goofy picture of me in case you were wondering what I look like :)

Jacob and I made the  weathered wood square thing in the backdrop using some pieces from our old deck...anyone know what that thing is called??? I saw one in an antique store and tried to replicate it at home...I even have a tutorial I wrote on how to make it, but just don't know what it's called...is it part of a fence? A gate? A trellis?

Our fireplace is gas-burning, but I still love the cozy look of a container full of wood sitting next to the fireplace. These logs are from a bunch of maples Jacob cut down in our backyard this summer.

 Isn't she purty?

 

Linking up to: 

Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage 

Catch as Catch Can @ My Repurposed Life 

Flaunt Your Fall @ Chic on a Shoestring Decorating 

Feature Yourself Friday @ Fingerprints on the Fridge 

Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest 

Shabby Shares Link Party @ Rustic Crafts 

SNS@ Funky Junk Interiors 

Creative Genius Link Party @ The Creative Paige

Summer Mantel

I LOVE that summer is almost upon us!

Our house has a little bit of coastal flair year-round, 

but when summer finally rolls around, I feel like I  actually have permission to display my favorite beachy decor :)

Here is our living room mantel, all decked out in her summer gear...

Most of the items were things I already had around the house or things that I picked up from various flea markets around here {like Ruffles and Rust Square}.

I spray painted the mirror and shutters using Valspar's Warm Grey {read about it HERE}

and made the book page wreath {read about it HERE}.

I did end up purchasing the wooden crate {below} at Ben Franklin Crafts and filled it with some of my beachy collectibles.

Below are my most recent flea market finds {and my favorite too}...

I just love the colors and textures!

Some of you may rememebr my dilmmas in decorating the niche in our entryway 

{Read about it HERE}...

Well, I ended up painting the back of it the same blue as the living room {Sherwin Williams Comfort Gray} and I found the perfect arched shaped mirror too {from Timeless Settings}.

So it's looking better, but still needs a little something...

Linking up to:

My summer mantel was featured at

Christmas Mantel 2010

The mantel is decked and the stockings are hung...

I had so many great ideas for this year's mantel that it was hard to stick to one...

too bad it's not practical to re-decorate it once a week!

I decided to leave up the mirror and shutters along with the star and wreath since it all kinda went with my warm metallic theme.

I started out by laying a string of white icicle lights (found in our Christmas box) across the mantel and covered it with Burlap Garland (from Michael's).

 

On top of the burlap I laid two stick garlands that have glittery balls attached to them 

(from Joann's) 

and I sprinkled in some gold ball ornaments from our tree.

Then I added in some books covered in brown paper, a starfish, two glass vases filled with more metallic glass ornaments,

and a glittery silver wire tree (from Pier 1).

After standing back and evaluating the mantel, I decided it needed some height, so I stuck some twigs in the glass vases and hung some mini gold ornaments (from Target) from them.

 The only thing left was the stockings.

We have never had cute, coordinated stockings for the whole family, so I decided to splurge on a set for all five of us.
I had been drooling over the white quilted stockings in Pottery Barn for a while, so I decided to go for it.
To ease the pain of these pricey stockings ($30 each!), I ordered two to start with and was going to wait a few weeks to order the rest.

Two beautiful stockings arrived last week embroidered with "Mom" and "Dad" on them and they are exactly what I had been dreaming of. 

So then I went to order the rest yesterday and they are NO LONGER AVAILABLE!!!

WHAT!!????

You have got to be kidding me.

After my little hissy fit and some internet searching, I found that Target carries some very similar
(for only $10!)

So last night I raced out and bought 3 more stockings for the kids. 

They aren't embroidered like the Pottery Barn ones 

(I photoshopped the kids' names on in the pictures), 

but they look darn near as nice!

I hung them from the mantel using some of the Command 3M hangers that are hidden under the burlap garland.

So there you have it - 

our Christmas mantel 2010!

Happy Holidays!