mantel decorating ideas - The Inspired Room

So last week I mentioned the other projects I decided I needed to do in the midst of holiday preparations. You know, all the things you’ve been putting off or didn’t even notice before they suddenly seem urgent. One of them was repainting my former kitchen cupboard door turned shutter above my fireplace.

You might remember that I had originally painted it blue because I didn’t have any primer. We were having company over that night and that was all I had on hand that would stick to the cabinet like primer. As luck would have it, I ran out of time to paint the third shutter a top coat of white like the others so it had to stay blue. Whatever.

So, while the middle shutter was a lovely shade of blue, after a few weeks of living with its blueness it just wasn’t working for me. I did like the idea of the third shutter being a color instead of white though. So, I got out my new favorite green paint mixed with some brown toner and voila, I now have an aged green shutter.

Still haven’t painted my swine walls (OINK!) and I am still considering fabric to possibly slipcover my chairs and ottomans, but I am much happier overall now just having my green shutter. It doesn’t take much to make me happy. Decorating is definitely a slow process of pulling together what I have around my house. Picking out everything from scratch before I even began would be easier, but I enjoy the challenge of making things work as I go.

So, there you have it, the mantel and its touch of Christmas. To keep it inexpensive and simple, I used mostly things I already had…my HomeGoods lanterns, old garland, my Pier One apples from fall, and clear glass candlesticks to hold up my blue glass ornaments. And I finished it off with a natural twig wreath to balance out the pretty and round out the rectangular shapes. That wreath will work all winter.

Some of you asked about the stockings when I showed them last week. They are Pottery Barn but I added some of my grandma’s doilies to the girls’ stockings to pretty them up and make them unique. Easy peasy. No sewing either, just tucked them around the cuff.