Fall Mantel: I'm Jumping on the Bandwagon

Every blogger ever has shared their "fall mantel" in the last month and I finally have a mantel to decorate for the first time in my adult life, so its time to share mine! I've always wanted to be the kind of adult person who decorates their house seasonally. And by seasonally, I mean seasons other than Christmas. Obviously I've always decorated for Christmas. I'm not an animal.

Now that I have a mantle and a house of my own, every season will have it's own decor! I'll have boxes of labeled, organized decorations that come out every month: Silver pine cones for post-Christmas winter, pink candles for Valentines, Easter eggs and porcelain bunnies for Easter, etc. Or maybe (probably) I'll never be that organized. For now though, my mantle makes me feel like sweaters and pumpkin pie, even though it's still 90+ degrees in Texas. Also, its the only place in my house that consistently looks nice and neat and doesn't have Dr. Pepper cans or water bottles or mail or magazines or cats on it. That alone is reason for celebration!

Here's the wide view. I still need to paint the fireplace screen black because the brass is the tackiest thing in real life. However, it kind of goes with the color scheme so my lazy self is leaving it temporarily. Also, please ignore how dusty the hearth is. Yuck. Remember how I said I was lazy?

 

Here's a closer view, with another view of the horns of our Gimsbock in the mirror. More on him later. (spoiler alert: my house is full of taxidermy against my will) I'm not usually an earth tones person but it's fall and you have to be. Fall does not look like fall in my favorite teal and grey. It just doesn't. I did sneak in some navy though. Change is hard.

Here's a quick rundown of the setup from left to right: Black and white chevron urn from the Nate Berkus for Target collection, pumpkins and gourds from my local grocery store (aka the worlds greatest grocery store), candles from Target (the brown pine-coney ones and the funky orange mod one were on clearance but the red petal-y one was there a few weeks ago), Chinese evergreen plant in pot from Lowes that was ugly so I spray painted it navy,

gold honeycomb candle holders from Goodwill, Hey Y'all poster in this frame, another plant,

antique ship lantern from my grandfather (in case you care it's the starboard lantern because the glass is blue), distressed moravian star, more gourds/pumpkins.

PS sorry this picture is crazy blurry. I blame the laziness again.



Side note: Here's a lesson for you kids, if you're at a store and see 2 really cool, mercury-glass moravian stars for $8 each, BUY BOTH OF THEM! If you don't, 3 years later you will look back at your 23 year old self and think you were an idiot. It will cloud any good or important things you did that year because there was nothing you did that made up for the fact that you walked away from a 2nd star that could be hanging as a light fixture on your stair landing. Especially since you saw one last week on Ebay for $200. You idiot.

Anyway, Happy Fall!