The Mantle: Complete Redo and Fall Decor

This was quite the work in progress, and it's the second and last piece to my teaser post the other day. One of the main priorities we had when looking for a house was that it had to have a fireplace. Check. It was one of the first places I decorated. This was actually after a few changes had been made from the original design.

And this is the most recent look.


I was ready for a major change. Pretty much immediately after we put up the round mirror, I wasn't liking it. As Carl stated "it's a mirror for nothing." He was right. Sadface. But I dealt with it for quite awhile. That is, until now. I convinced Carl it was time for a change, and he finally agreed to go with it. I usually need his buy in because I make him do the hanging, patching, painting, etc.

So, this reveal is a seasonal reveal, for obvious reasons. It's fall people! It's all about the fall decorating right now! So with no further ado....I give you, the new My Happy House Mantle. Momma's in love :)



I'll break it down for you.

1. The mirror is down and the frames are up now. I decided it would be OK to have some family photos up now for a few reasons. The largest family photo we had anywhere was a 5x7 and a few 4x6s from our wedding. Now that we have Cam and have had some professional family photos taken, I decided it was time to display them in a significant way.

2. The candlesticks, tea light holders, and clock all carried over to the new design. I've liked all those pieces since we got them and have no plans to get rid of them anytime soon!

3. The last piece of "regular" decor that will stay season to season are the new sconces. The old ones served their purpose, but were a little more ornate than I wanted. I wanted something sleek with clean lines. We bought two pillar holder sconces from Pottery Barn.
4. Tied to the sconces, are ears of Indian Corn. This was part of the reason I wanted sleek, simple lines for the sconces. I wanted to be able to dress them up for the holidays. I just used some twine and ivory ribbon to affix the corn to the sconce. I also used flameless candles here, these ones are orange for the season, so I wouldn't have any "burning down the house with my decor" issues.

5. The leaf is just a basic leaf garland and the gourds are just that, gourds. Pretty simple.

That's the breakdown of the fall/updated mantle. I can't wait to see what I can come up with for Christmas. But I'm telling myself to be patient. You definitely won't see a change until at least the Monday after Thanksgiving.

We made some other changes in the family room, but I think this post is long enough so I'll save that for another day. Soon...but another day.

p.s. I didn't forget about my Monday Morning Round Up. I'll be back later today with that! And I'll be posting an InLinkz for all your round ups too, so get to writing :)