Mantel |

Fall Decor

Posted on October 6, 2012 by Amy

It took me awhile this year {or did everyone just start decorating earlier?} to get into the swing of fall…maybe because its in the 80′s here on the coast of Virginia and has been so humid it feels like we live, as we kindly say, in the “tropics”, Ugh!

Last year at this time we had just moved into our new home, and I could not wait to decorate my porch for Fall as you can see below. {That post is HERE}.

This year, I decorated inside first where at least my air conditioning makes it feel more “fall-like”. Starting in my Dining Room, I wound up pulling some blue accents in along with the traditional fall decor. Since I painted the ceiling blue in this room, I can’t ignore the tone completely, but I think it mixed in nicely.

If you follow closely, yes I had that simple wood box in my gift wrapping armoire–in case you recognize it–I just found something new to use instead for that space and I love how rustic it is on the more formal table in here.

I updated the tiny little dining room bar area with some fall touches as well.

Right outside the room is this little area in our front hallway. This little table just seemed complete with this wedding picture from many years ago {Wow, time flies!} of course, mostly because I thought the frame blended nicely. This may even be our last wedding picture floating around? They get taken over by all the pictures of the kids after awhile, don’t they?

Here is what I put together in our Family Room. I didn’t expect to do anything with my mantel this year. However, I found Layla’s mantel HERE to be inspirational and immediately wanted to use a similar concept in my house.

Christy made me some number vinyls last year, and the “3″ I have on the plate is just something that signifies our three kiddos. I found both this little ironstone pitcher and this milk crate in Maine this summer at some of my favorite antique stores. The crate is a lovely reminder all winter of our Maine vacation spot which is just down the road from Waterville.

I haven’t even dragged out my Halloween decor, but I suppose that is up next! Hopefully we’ll get some cooler temperatures next week to help us get in the spirit of things.

So let me ask, am I behind or did everyone just get on the ball earlier this year?

Thanks for stopping by!

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Posted in Autumn and Fall, Autumn/ Fall, Home Inspiration, Home Tours, Real Spaces | Tagged autumn, Dining Room, Fall, fall decor, mantel, Porch, pumpkins | 4 Comments

Easter Mantel Decor

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Amy

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Easter is right around the corner and everyone in my house is very excited. My 3-year old daughter asks me every day “Is the Easter Bunny is coming TODAY?! “

Easter is among my favorite holidays. I love the pastel decor, the celebration of resurrection and new life and the fresh, easter dresses (!) and the happy, “spring” feeling that comes at this time of year.

I don’t usually do much to my mantel, and having a new house it took a bit of thought to decide how to decorate my new (very white) mantel/fireplace. My house was painted all white (as you have seen in my kitchen HERE and my daughter’s room HERE) so I decorate with neutrals and texture to make it more interesting. Light blue is my favorite color, so going that route was kind of an easy choice.

I made the EASTER sign out of a wooden plaque from Michael’s and traced some letters, then painted them. My daughter and I painted some kraft paper eggs light blue together, and Christy sent me the light blue cut-out of a bunny which I backed with scrapbook paper and framed.

This little green guy came from Pier One. Don’t they have the best Easter decorations every year?

I hope its feeling very spring-like where you are, I am SO happy it is starting to warm up here.

Here is a link to our Spring Giveaway for a cute monogrammed Burlap Tote!

And, did you see our new header? Yes, that’s us Magnolia Lane girls! Its a preview from our recent photo session with Jessica Oatman, we can’t wait to reveal our whole new look very soon.

XO,

Posted in Crafts, Easter, Holidays, Projects & Printables | Tagged blue, Easter, easter bunny, Flowers, mantel, Spring, white | 5 Comments

Mantel Number Two–"Noel"

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Christy

We are living in an awesome old house (built in 1915!) right now, and it just happens to have four fireplaces. So, what that means is that at Christmastime, I have four mantels to decorate! I am NOT complaining about having four mantels, because that would just be annoying, but I am stating for the record that it is a bit of a decorating challenge. My husband will probably be dragging me, kicking and screaming, from this house over the summer, when it will be time to move again, so since this is my last Christmas here, I am trying to make our decorations extra-special.

The first mantel that I did was in our library/family room/den/whatever-you-want-to-call it. It’s where the TV is, and my husband’s recliner (I took one for the team on that decorating horror!), so that’s where we put our tree and our stockings. I already posted pictures here and I do like the way that it turned out. I put it on Rate My Space, because I’m slightly masochistic, and it seems like the tough crowd there has liked it, too.

OK, so a few days ago I did the mantel in the formal living room. This is where the piano is, and it’s painted a yellow-gold color. The chandelier is gold, as are the frames around most of the artwork in the room, and so I had to go with gold decorations. Plus, the focal point of the room is the old stained glass window from the church in which my parents got married. My mom and dad had it on display for years in their house, and then I asked if it could be passed down to me. If my house caught on fire, I’d make sure my family was safe (yes, including the cat, even though he wouldn’t return the favor!), and then I’d wrestle this window down and rescue it. So, it has pride of place in my house, and it’s smack dab over the mantel. I just don’t think there’s any way to decorate this spot except simply, otherwise it detracts from the window. So all I did was string a gold “Noel” banner across the mantel (yes, I know, the banner is a recurring theme in my decorations this year), put a crystal bowl of gold ornaments on top, and pop a white poinsettia on either side of the hearth. That’s it. The folks on Rate My Space were not overly enthusiastic (here), and maybe something gets lost in translation with my camera, but I’m not sure if a bunch of greenery and lights would work much better. I’ll post some pictures below–and I’d love to hear what you think!

Here’s the full-frontal snapshot!

This is what I’m dealing with in the rest of the room–see all of the gold accents?

Click below to check out some other AWESOME mantels at the Holiday Home Linky Party at the Lettered Cottage!

Posted in DIY, Holidays, Home Inspiration, Home Tours, Real Spaces | Tagged banner, Christmas, fireplace, gold, holiday, living room, mantel, mantle, stained glass | 2 Comments

Merry and Bright–Getting the Decorations Up!

Posted on December 2, 2010 by Christy

In real life, I have a husband and kids and a very busy calendar (and a very messy kitchen), and so my Christmas decorations do not go up overnight. Rather, it takes me about a week. We were out of town for Thanksgiving, too, and so I feel like I came home already behind the eight ball. So, room by room we are getting decked out for Christmas.

I had to start with my daughter’s room, mostly because she would have decorated herself if I hadn’t, and that would have been a mess! We had a great time in there for a day, and then I moved on to the kitchen because I love my little kitchen tree the most of any of my trees. I must admit here and now that the Ritz cracker can is an idea that I borrowed from my good friend Andrea. All of the ornaments are kitchen/cooking related.

Next, I did the wet bar. I took down my mint julep cups from the shelf and put up my grandmother’s Santa mugs and little Santa nut cups (I think they’re nut cups, at least). Thank you to my cousin, Stephanie, for sharing some of the mugs with me–they were the best Christmas present ever! I didn’t do much else here besides add some evergreens and holly (I cut both from the backyard) and light some candles. I think the old leaded glass window is a decoration in and of itself.

My grandmother’s Santa mugs:

Vintage decanters from my grandmother and thrift shop silver tray.

After the kitchen and the wet bar were done, I moved into the library, and did the mantel there. Our house has four fireplaces, so I’m going to need a few more ideas. Fortunately, Southern Hospitality and The Lettered Cottage are having a vignette party, so I can get lots of good mantel ideas there!

My goal for this Christmas was not to buy anything new, and to just use what I had, whether it was technically a Christmas decoration or not. I did buy fresh poinsettias ($3.50 each at Wal-mart) and the letters to make the JOY banner ($5 at Hobby Lobby for the letters and the ribbon–I already had the spray paint and the glitter), but that’s it. Everything else was already in the house and just got moved to the mantel. I cut cypress greens from the backyard and magnolia leaves from the front. I’m still tweaking it a bit, but here it is as of 8pm tonight!