With spring nearly here, I guess I’ve been in an outdoorsy kind of mood. I put together a new mantle display with the great outdoors in mind. It’s a little quirky, a little colorful and lots of fun. I don’t know how long I’ll leave it up, but I’m enjoying it for right now. I’m not the kind of person who can leave the same mantle display up for long. (As you can tell if you keep up with my blog.) After a while, I just need to switch it up. When I get in that mood, I’m usually too lazy to take everything down. If I did that I’d have to find places for everything to go, haul things up and down stairs, and do a lot of reorganizing. There’s no way that’s going to happen very often. Instead, I sneakily move items around and add just enough new pieces to make it look different. (That’s what I did with the mirror, plants and vintage tin. You can see them all in this display.) This is an easy way to freshen up your mantle without doing a lot of work. Leave the basic pieces you like, add a...
Fresh Mantle Display
It’s a New Year. Time for a new mantle display. If you can get through the chore of taking down your Christmas decorations, the chance to freshen up your fireplace mantle can make up for it somewhat. Even though it’s only January, I’m yearning for spring. How about you? I decided what better way to make it feel like spring than to bring a bit of nature indoors? That’s what’s going on with my mantle display. It’s simple. Clean. And, it has fresh touches from nature here and there. Need some feel good spring-like inspiration for your mantle? Here’s how I got the look. Overall, I kept the mantle super simple with white vases, a bit of glass for sparkle and natural elements. See those branches and that snippet of greenery? I ran outside in the snow (in my slippers no less) and trimmed those bits from plants in my front yard. The dash of green makes me really happy during this bleak winter. My boyfriend found these antlers on the ground. Little did he know they were so handy for holding up garland. Pinecones scavenged from my yard look fancy displayed on a tiered tray. (P.S. I made...
Christmas Mantle 2013
Welcome to my Christmas mantle this year. I went with super traditional red and green, with a bit of gold metallic mixed in. What’s most exciting about my mantle though is that I decorated it for the holidays without buying anything new! After shopping around the house for items I liked, using last year’s Christmas ornaments and repurposing branches trimmed from the Christmas tree, I had a pretty display. I already had all of the containers, candlesticks and tins used on my mantle. I don’t remember when I bought the big wide ribbon. It was in my Christmas storage box, along with all of the ornaments. I guess I did buy the supplies to make these Christmas tree cones. (But it cost me less than $4 to make the three cones.) Instead of garland, I used the branches trimmed off the bottom of my Christmas tree. The antlers (found on the ground by my boyfriend) seemed appropriate for this time of year. Does it look Christmasy in my home or what? What do you think of my mantle this year? Let me know in the comments… Keep Up With Red Leaf Style! Follow Red Leaf Style author Kirsten Hudson on...
My Fireplace Mantle For Fall
Welcome to my fireplace mantle this fall. What I love about my décor this year is that I only purchased a couple of items on the display. The rest came from around my house or from my front yard! I already owned the vases, vintage tin, plant and thrift store plate. The turkey feathers were courtesy of my boyfriend. The beeswax candles I made myself using jars I scrounged up from around the house. The pinecones came from my front yard. And, I bought the tiny pumpkins and gourds from my local farmer’s market. (A whole bucketful for $4!) How did you decorate your fall mantle this year? I’d love to see pictures… Keep up with Red Leaf Style! Follow Red Leaf Style author Kirsten Hudson on Twitter @kirsten_hudson, Google+ and Pinterest. This is the twenty second post in a 31 days blog series called 31 Days of Reimagining. Start from the beginning....
Today’s Mantle Display is…Rustic
As you can see from my mantle display today, I’m in the rustic kind of mood. Springtime makes me dream about country cottages, gardens with hedge mazes and weathered statues, and lazy outdoor dinners with fresh food. My reality (an urban apartment) is thousands of acres away from that dream. Still, I can at least make my mantle look all “rustic garden”. That’s something, right? I’m digging the combination of flowers, mason jars, wooden elements and potted plants in terracotta containers on my mantle display. What do you think? Let me know in the comments… Keep Up With Red Leaf Style! Follow Red Leaf Style author Kirsten Hudson on Twitter @kirsten_hudson, Google+ and Pinterest....
Colorful Mantle Display
If you’ve read my blog before, you might have been wondering why I never show pictures of my mantle. When I do include pictures of my fireplace, they’re always of the hearth, not the mantle. (See…) Well, I’ve been hiding it from you, but the reason for that is because up until now the T.V. sat on the mantle. It was not cute. I loathed it. Serious loathing. I hated all of the awful cords hanging down the sides of the fireplace that I tried to cover up (impossible). I hated that I finally had a home with a built-in vintage fireplace and it couldn’t even look cute because an electronic monstrosity was taking over the focal point of the living room. I tried to convince my twin sister (and roommate) that we didn’t need a T.V. I tried to convince myself. (I currently have an addiction to Netflix that needs to stop.) I tried to think of other places to put the T.V. At the time it seemed like there were no other options. The cable line was right by the fireplace. How would I move it? Every wall in my living room either has a door or a...