mineral mantel
This weekend I was possessed by some strange nesting demon and had to work on home projects. I’ve been slowly redecorating our living room all year, without a ton of progress. Though I did paint the room a very satisfying light blue green, I haven’t sorted out any of the details. It’s August and I still had our winter terrariums up.
After visiting the mineral hall at the Natural History Museum, I was really inspired to incorporate some more natural things into our decor. I envisioned a combination of minerals and geodes in some geometric display in combination with some plants. I found tons of items that would fit this bill, but didn’t exactly fit my wallet. Plus with all the movie watching we do, our living room is often left dark; not exactly the best atmosphere for growing things.
Instead of ordering a bunch of perfect pretty things online, I searched around the house for some rocks and other bits we already had laying around. Surprisingly we have a lot of rocks and weird little things hiding away in closets. It was enough to get me started and see where I want to go. I like the contrast of heavy rocks with some antique glass canisters. I’ll still have to come up with an alternate for plants and I’d like to add some height on the sides. I’m also happy that it showcases our Mondo ET poster.
The room as a whole has quite a bit more work to go. Here is my long term list:
- Add a few select pieces to the mantel
- Make covers for the arms of our couch – The cats have gotten a little too comfortable scratching the couch corners. Some covers will hide the damage they’ve already done and stop them from making it worse.
- Reupholster my chair – The slipcover I made has been a good temporary solution, but it’s not a permanent one.
- New lighting fixtures – I’m not particularly fond of the sconces we have now, but of course, every sconce I’ve liked has been drastically out of our price range. This antler sconce is my favorite. I also have been looking at art deco sconces, but with four in the room, it’s unlikely that I’d find a full set that would work.
- Repair chipped paint on floor moldings / touch up window paint
I should probably make one of these lists for every room.
Mantels
I have to admit that I still have our holiday decorations up on our mantel. Since it’s more winter themed than holiday specific, it’s not so bad, but it has been 80 degrees and sunny so it’s time to start figuring out what’s next. Previously we had our mantel decorated with these terrariums, but I think I’d like to put a little more thought into it.
How pretty are these mantels? Up top is at Shawn’s sister Missy‘s house. I love the natural and rustic style. I’m particularly fond of how the rocks and fossils are displayed (as we have quite a few ourselves). My favorite part is the little modern owl.
I also am a big fan of this mantel from Shawn’s aunt & uncles house. Mainly I just love the artwork; it is really showcased but everything also to flows together. I think my previous mantel decor has been seriously lacking in the height department. Not to mention I would love to have some sort of garland, of course on a smaller everyday scale. Oh and again with the adorable modern animals. Those deer are just stunning.
Now to figure out how to combine the two…
Halloween Pumpkin Mantel
Generally speaking when it comes to Halloween decorations, I lean more towards the actual scary than the cute. On the other hand, I love pumpkins and I knew for our mantel I wanted a ton of pumpkins.
I bought a handful of fake pumpkins from the craft store (they never go rotten!) and went to town. I thought I’d stick with a black and white theme and at first I was tempted to make them pretty with patterned stencils, but was inspired to paint cute faces on them when we found a light up pumpkin at a Halloween store. We turned that one into a makeshift light putting it on an antique tripod.
Of course with the black and white theme, I was able to incorporate the ghosties I made.
Look at that happy pumpkin face! They were all painted with acrylic paint we had laying around the house. Pretty simple and pretty fast.
This is the just the beginnings of our decor. We have some more creepy awesome stuff that I’ll share over the next weeks. Not to mention that next weekend is our horror movie marathon and all the treats and decorations that go along with it. Can’t wait!
