With a new home there are some new and
exciting ways I can decorate.
I am finding that it is a little harder for me to
come up with ideas this year. I attribute it to not being that familiar with my
new home. Once I came up with a design plan I felt more comfortable moving
forward.
In our previous home we had an unusually
large mantel to decorate every year. Our mantel spanned the entire width of the
room. It was 17ft long. Our new mantel is about a third of that, measuring
65in.
Since our new home’s family room is smaller
with a smaller mantel I won’t be doing anything quite as elaborate as I did in
our previous home.
The fireplace and the TV share the same wall
so this is also something I have to keep in mind because visually your eye will
be taking them in at the same time they need to marry well together.
This picture shows how they are connected, it was
taken the day we moved in. The TV now resides on the wall and I have artwork
over the mantel.
My inspiration picture for my mantel is elegant and
simple……
As with all inspiration images I will do my own
interpretation of this beautiful image. I would love to have the large urns,
but I don’t!
Always remember you can tweak things and make it your own. When I
look at images of rooms I always look with an open mind and I never, ever think, “ I can
never do that because I will never have those beautiful pieces or that beautiful
home!” That is a defeatist attitude.
Instead I look at it thinking about the
colors, the textures, the composition and then I change it up to work with what
I have and with my own home and most importantly within my own budget constraints.
My tip for you is
simple…….
Study good design, and what you love,
and try to apply it to your room within your own environment, and within your
own budget!!
GREAT IDEA:
Since our home is new I want to make
sure I protect our mantel from any damage from the greenery I will be using. I
use a faux pine greenery for my mantel and I also will add some live greenery
that I can remove when it gets dry and somewhat dead looking. By combining the
two I get the scent of the pine and it also makes the faux greenery look more
real.
The faux greenery has wires that can damage the
finish on my mantel so when I read about this next idea I pinned it so I could
show my husband, and I want to share this with you because I think it is such a
great idea.
A mantel nailing board. You take a 3/4in. piece of plywood the same size as your mantel. Add felt furniture glides under the board so it won’t scratch your mantel and this will be where you attach your greenery, stockings, etc. After Christmas is over you can store it with the garland still attached, if you have room or remove the garland and store the board. When Christmas rolls around next year, you are all set!
Today is Christmas mantel day at our
home. My handy hubby will be cutting the piece of wood to fit our mantel and I
will begin my decorating for this year. Our mantel is 8 in. deep and we found a
board at Lowes that is 8in. deep and primed white so that will save us another
step of having to paint the whole board.
I will show you the final results in
an upcoming post, I promise!
Yesterday we did a fun, easy
project.
Here is my inspiration picture for that project…….
Here is my inspiration picture for that project…….
Here is a picture of my hubby helping create the
look I am going for…..
He is a very handy guy, plus he has patience and
understands when I say, “ Move it just a smidge!” he knows just how far a smidge
is!
Once I take some pictures of the final results I
will do a blog post to show you the results. I am delighted in how it turned
out. Simple and elegant!!!
I hope you are enjoying decking your
halls as much as I am!!!!
Remember To
Always…….
