Quick mantel restyle

A few quick shots of my restyled mantel. My house is feeling bloated with too much stuff, so I'm going for simplicity here.

Two of the notable new additions not from previous incarnations of my mantel are this pair of brass quails. They were a Christmas gift from my brother and I'm pretty much in love with them.

Winter mantel restyle: Wood and brass

I much prefer to decorate non-seasonally. (I'm terrible at taking things down when the holiday is over, so I just try to avoid the situation altogether.) But there's no escaping Christmas, so I try to give my holiday decorations a little extra life by going in a semi-neutral direction. (You know, so they don't look ridiculous in January, when they will inevitably still be there).

I didn't want to buy anything new, so I shopped the house, pilfering things from other rooms and dragging more out of storage.

I collected all the empty wooden frames and small boxes I owned and grabbed all the brass animals from around the house. (Nevermind that most of them aren't wintery/Christmasy animals. I kind of like the weird assortment.)

It's a simple look and without the bed of pine garland and lights, it probably wouldn't suggest Christmas at all. But I like the subtle shimmer of the brass and I added some small snowflakes for a wintry touch. 

p.s. This is sort of a remix of last year's mantelscape.

Restyling the mantel

I restyled the mantel (finally). I much prefer to do something non-seasonal because I am lazy and don't take things down timely enough. I just got around to taking down the Christmastime pine greenery a couple of weeks ago. And I think Elise's birthday party garland was up for like three months after her party last year. Yeah, I'm bad.

Most of the things I had in the house already. Just when I think I can't possibly find anything "new" in my own house, I manage to pull out some great stuff.

I've had this print in the same spot for most of the time we have lived in this house, but I don't see any reason to move it.

Dan and I went to London five (wow) years ago and I think we spent more time on the "tube" than anyplace else. While I didn't bring this print home with me, it always reminds me of that trip. I also love the whimsical way the people are floating.

I found this pair of crocodiles a little while ago at my favorite antique mall for $2. Love them.

I think they are Japanese, but I'm only guessing that because they are painted in a very similar fashion to a small piggy figurine I have that is stamped Japan.

I found this former clock (?) at my grandparents' house. I love scrolly ironwork (even if it is made out of plastic), so I had to do something with it.

I found an octagonal mirror at the craft store that fit almost perfectly and used super-strong E6000 adhesive to attach it to the plastic. The mirror could have been a tiny bit bigger, but that size was pretty much the only option I had short of custom (not happening).

Winter woodland-themed mantel

Hello, sorry I have been blog-absent! I would like to say I've been busy making Christmas gifts, but in reality, I've been dealing with less pleasant things (i.e. a bad cold and the stomach flu). Much better now, but I feel like I've lost days worth of time for Christmas projects, shopping and finishing the playroom. (I ran out of time to make an advent calendar, too, but that's OK. Elise probably wouldn't understand it yet anyway, and there's always next year.)

Time to get busy! First up, holiday decorating.

I have a hard time spending much money on Christmas decorations, so everything I've used here (save a new strand of LED lights) are things we already owned or were hand-me-downs.

Yes, you spied my deer again. I'm still in love with him.

I bought these mirror cone trees last year at Dollar Tree after seeing how people antiqued them on Dollar Store Crafts. (They have them in the stores again this year, too.) They were super shiny straight from the store, so I dulled them down with some black and brown acrylic paint. I think they look more expensive than just a buck each.

These little glitter birds were 90% off after-Christmas clearance at Target last year. Eighteen birds for just $1.90. Can't beat that.

This small brass owl was an antique mall find from a couple of months ago. I seem to be acquiring a menagerie of brass animals.

The existing artwork wasn't really blending with the gold and silvery stuff, so I took some matte gold wrapping paper and cut a piece slightly larger than my frame. With a pencil, I sketched the skeleton of the tree. Then I took some white craft paint and quickly painted the branches. With such thin paper, it's important not to use a ton of paint or the paper will wrinkle or tear. I wanted it to look loose and sketchy. This is ephemeral decor and it's not worth spending a ton of time on. When the paint was dry, I just folded it over the top and bottom of the frame and taped it to the back.

The whole thing probably took 15 minutes. (And it probably looks it, but I'm OK with that.)