Our Mantel: An Updated Look
19 Aug 2013
Few things seem more central to a home than the hearth. Maybe I feel this way because of my love of the old Russian ovens, which were big enough to take up half a house, and which had convenient little ledges on the top for warm sleeping. Our gas fireplace doesn’t even work (although it could if we shelled out $25 for a charge coupler or something along those lines), and yet I do hope it is the centerpiece of our home, the place where we gather, the place where the things that are most meaningful to us are found. I wrote about our mantel a year and a half ago, and it looks really naked to me in that post. I’ve had some time to think about what I really want to be represented in this space, and I’m really happy with where I’ve landed.
The biggest change is that we moved our engagement photo canvas to our bedroom to make room for a larger wedding canvas. We just love it and the moment it captures. (Thanks to Amy Dale for the gorgeous shot!) The button tree paintings have stayed put, but we moved them out to the side a bit to accommodate the larger canvas.
I had also really been wanting to try my hand at wrapping some bottles in yarn. I have been keeping bottles from wine and champagne and fancy vinegars for months, so it was nice to get a few of them out of the way. The yarn is from my current knitting project: a blanket for our living room, so the colors will be echoed there when it’s all finished and on display.
I don’t really have a tutorial for wrapping bottles in yarn, but I will say that it’s fairly straightforward until you get to the curved part of the neck: ack! At that point, just give the bottle a good slathering of ModPodge to give the yarn something to stick to as you’re winding it.
I got these cute little leather letters at the craft store one day when I needed to break a $20 bill. Fortune smiled upon me. I love our initials together, and I love the vibrant colors.
And, of course, the pinecones are a new addition. These are the gigantic Ponderosa pinecones I found at Palomar. I hadn’t really given them a thought as decor, even though I loved them, but several people suggested in the comments of that post that I should bring some home with me. Thank you! I am so glad I did, and so happy to have a memory of this special place in our lives right there on the mantel.
As we left Palomar last month, Eric’s dad helped me gather a few pinecones for my collection, and Eric took our picture. I am so glad to have it because it helps me recall the danger of pinecone picking. I mean this in a completely literal fashion: these things will cut you. They totally cut me several times. But then I wised up. I washed them when we got home, to clear out the pine needles and cobwebs and sap, and I didn’t cut myself once. While they were drying, the whole house smelled like a rainy day in a pine forest. A fantastic added bonus.
The garlics (as we so lovingly call them), the leaf garland, and the welded metal heart are all mainstays of the mantel, and they are described in more detail here.
I’m so pleased that we’ve gone from this…
To this! More vibrant, more warm, more us.
Aug 19, 2013 @ 05:36:24
Love the new look. Really like the initials too! (Great colors!)
Aug 26, 2013 @ 14:58:43
Thank you! I got lucky on the colors, for sure!
Aug 19, 2013 @ 05:50:22
I absolutely LOVE everything you have chosen for your mantel. Each item is meaningful and also pretty darn cute. You’ve pulled it off again!
Aug 26, 2013 @ 14:59:24
Thank you so much! Now come on out here and see it, or else I shall be forced to kidnap you from your conference in Anaheim!
Aug 19, 2013 @ 06:51:11
much much better, I love the pops of color you incorporated also the different textures-beautiful wedding photo!!
Aug 26, 2013 @ 15:00:13
Thank you! It only took us a year and a half to get it printed, but better late than never!
Aug 19, 2013 @ 06:51:23
I too love the new look. Those pine cones look even bigger than in your photos from Palomar. They are as big as pineapples and a lot nicer.
Aug 26, 2013 @ 15:01:03
Thank you! They are really huge indeed! Thank you for suggesting that I bring some back with me. I have two more on top of the bookcase in our bedroom, and I love looking up at them when I’m reading a book in bed:)
Aug 19, 2013 @ 07:27:51
It looks so much more full and finished now. I love your wedding picture! I should be getting mine back any day now. I can’t wait!
Aug 26, 2013 @ 15:02:29
Thank you! I am excited to see yours too! 🙂
Aug 19, 2013 @ 12:02:20
YES! This looks beautiful. Do mine next? (That’s a dumb joke; we don’t have a mantel. Someday!)
Aug 19, 2013 @ 22:34:50
I don’t have a mantel either, but I bought a shelf (probably about 3ish ft long) and centered it on the wall of our dining room. It’s almost as good! Fills the void of not having a mantel and it’s lots of fun to decorate! (Here’s a picture: http://offbeathome.com/2012/10/happy-haunted-halloween-moment)
Aug 26, 2013 @ 15:09:40
Alexandrea, I *love* it! I adore fall and those beautiful warm colors. And I love the little owl too! What a great idea to hang a shelf and make it into a mantel! I am thinking that would be a great idea for a few rooms in our house where we have limited shelving space. And then I’ll have more things to decorate! Hurrah!
Aug 26, 2013 @ 15:05:58
Thank you! I am sooo overdue for a visit! But I think if I came, we would just drink coffee and laugh and play with C all day…and that sounds like a dream vacation to me! 🙂 Skype soon? Sorry I missed you last week. And I need to hear more about your zucchini crab cakes!
Aug 19, 2013 @ 20:51:08
Definitely goes from more of a house to a home feeling in my book. Love all the vibrant color and texture that the decor lends to your mantel!
Aug 26, 2013 @ 15:07:09
Thank you so much, Emily! I love seeing all of your adventures on Facebook too! Looks like it has been a beautiful summer! 🙂
Aug 20, 2013 @ 03:15:55
I love the new look of your mantel! We have our initials on ours too – D, J and P which covers all three of us. We have a mirror over ours right now, and we don’t have a wedding picture on display yet, despite being married over two years we haven’t got around to it! Maybe the mantel is the place for one, hmm. I’ll blog about our mantel one day when it isn’t covered in dust and random post and paperwork tucked behind the ornaments!
Aug 26, 2013 @ 15:15:09
Oh, how sweet! I love the idea of adding letters for little ones when they come along! It took us a year and a half to get our wedding photo up, and even then it was only because I found a coupon online–those big canvas photo prints are pricey! I like the idea of a mirror over the mantel too–probably opens up the space quite a bit! There are areas of our home that I will probably never blog because they are always cluttered–the kitchen table, the office where I do art stuff and write, and…the enormous pile of books in our bedroom!
Aug 20, 2013 @ 05:50:15
The mantel looks great.
I love your wedding picture.
Aug 26, 2013 @ 15:26:30
Thank you! It was the happiest day:)
Aug 24, 2013 @ 09:00:45
The mantel is very important in our home as well. It’s sad that the TV has replaced much of the meaning and purpose of a true hearth. There’s a reason people commonly couple the words hearth and home. I like that all your stuff has meaning to you instead of just fancy meaningless things like pottery barn vases and candles.
By the way…speaking of candles: we had a non-functioning fireplace in Austin (and later L.A. for a while), and Jennifer came up with the awesome idea of filling it with candles. If you can make some kind of stepped structure (think bleachers for your candles) then you can buy one of those huge cheap packs of K-Mart candles and you’ll get almost as much light as a roaring fire.
Aug 26, 2013 @ 16:54:26
Thank you so much for this sweet comment! And sorry I am so behind on your blog–I was hardly online at all while we were in Seattle. But yes, I totally agree with you! I love that we don’t have a tv in our living room, or at least not in the most central part of it. (We actually don’t have a tv at all, but that just means we watch tv and movies on our computers). I love the candle idea! That would be so pretty and nice for cool evenings. Did you build bleachers for yours? I was thinking we could maybe even use those stair-step spice rack thingies. But I also know several crafty people who would probably really like making candle bleachers–Eric’s dad is amazing at woodworking! And I’m off to read your game room post–can’t wait to see how it’s shaping up!
Aug 26, 2013 @ 21:39:48
I guess we’re not the first to think of this: you should do a google image search for “fireplace candelabra.”
Sep 02, 2013 @ 21:33:22
Thank you!