Neutral Fall Mantle {2015 Edition}

For some reason, all this week, I've been mentally ahead a day. It's the worst today, because I keep thinking it's Friday and we're about to start the weekend! Boo! Anyone else all out of whack this week, too?

If you've been following me on Instagram, you have already seen a sneak peak of my fall fireplace decor. I was originally planning to do a colorful mantle, but when I got out my fall decor, this just came together so easily, I had to go with neutral again this year! I love how fresh it looks, while still bringing in all the fall touches that I love! 

I have to say, I'm insanely proud of how this wall in our living room has turned out! Between painting the walls, adding the planking, and building the built-in, it has gone through quite a transformation!

This cute wood and burlap acorn bunting was only $3 in the Target dollar spot! Major score! There's so many cute fall decor items in the dollar spot right now, so go check it out! #notsponsoredbytarget #iwish

I added a couple of my burlap covered pumpkins I made last year to each side. I love how the pumpkins look on top of the candlesticks that I converted from taper candle holders to pillar candle holders!

Cotton, a textured vase, and neutral books finished it off. Super simple!

Have you been busy decorating for fall, too? Do you go all out with colors or stick to a neutral color palette? I genuinely love them both!


Linking up with Remodelaholic, Savvy Southern Style, and many other awesome blogs!

Prettying Up the Fireplace

If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw that we are getting close to finishing our living room built-in! Hooray! We just need to add a piece of trim, crown moulding, and patch some of the wall paint. It is turning out exactly like I dreamed up in my head and I can't wait to show it to you all! I've been giddy about it!

You know what else I've been giddy about? With the TV moved to the built-in, I got the fireplace mantle back to decorate! And it's even better than before because now we have planking!

Of course, before we had even made a single cut for our built-in, I found the perfect mirror for the fireplace. Ha! I was in at Home Goods looking for a mail sorter and spotted this mirror down the aisle. It was love at first sight! I anticipated it being $50 or $60 for such a large, detailed mirror, but was pleasantly surprised to see it was only $30! For something substantial and well made like this mirror, that's a steal!

I love that the gray pulls out our wall color and the wood undertones pull out the washed wood accents in the room.

I'm planning to finally build a long, skinny box for the middle of the mantle like Thrifty Decor Chick did years ago. Seriously, I think that project was the first thing I ever pinned and I still haven't done it! Where do the years go?!

But, in the meantime, I'm loving my new view that doesn't include a TV! Wahoo!

I'll be back with the built-in reveal, so stay tuned! Happy Weekend, Everyone!

Everyday Fireplace Decor

I don't know about you, but after Christmas, I always struggle a bit to redecorate my mantle. I don't want anything too seasonal, just something that's good for every day. I've been playing with my mantle decor since New Year's and finally came up with a mix that I love!

You'll remember I scored the antique window last fall for $15 and we gave it a fresh coat of paint. The boxwood wreath was part of my Christmas decor, but I really like it and think it transitioned well into our everyday decor.

The candles and candleholder are some that I bought at Kohl's several years ago. I love how versatile they are! When I'm not using them on the mantle, they go perfectly in our bedroom. I recently found the picture frame on clearance at Target. I love the washed wood tone. It's a subtle nod to this lamp that we purchased for our living room a few months ago when Target had their Threshold lamps 15% off.

I love this little faux succulent! It was only $3.99 at Target and adds a nice pop of green to this side of the mantle...and I can't kill it! ;)

Jeremy's family recently visited and we played Christmas while they were here. They gave me this lantern from Pier 1 that I've been eyeing for a while now. Love it! We purchased the plant and white pot at Ikea last summer.

So there you have it, our new everyday mantle decor. I'm loving how it ties in well with the greens in the rest of the living room!

Candlestick Makeover

The last time I went garage sailing, I spotted this great set of candlesticks. I loved their curvy shape, the fact that they were solid wood, and that each candlestick was unique yet coordinated. I am not a huge fan of taper candles, but knew I could give these babies a makeover to accommodate pillar candles. They were in pretty bad shape. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but they were really dirty and had lots of yellowed stains on them, like they had been in the attic for a while or something. They look nicely weathered in the pictures, but trust me, it was dirt. ;)

I found wooden plaques at Michael's for $.79 and thought they would be perfect to use as the top platform for pillar candles. Because the plaques were raw wood, I knew they would need priming. It took 4 coats of white spray paint to get good coverage--the wood was quite thirsty. :)

I used Elmer's wood glue to adhere the plaques to the top of the candlesticks, then filled in the seam with wood filler. After I sanded the dried wood filler, I was ready to paint! Oh and let me mention that wood putty is very different than wood filler. I originally bought wood putty, but then read that it does not dry and become hard. Not quite sure what the point of that would be??? Wood filler dries fairly quickly and then can be sanded down and stained or painted. I'm probably the only newb that didn't know this! :)

After getting a coat of white paint (I used a foam brush and the leftover paint from the dining room chairs), they were looking much better! See the difference between the dirty one and the freshly painted one? I'll admit, I really wanted to distress them, but my attempt failed miserably. I'm still stewing over a way to distress them without ruining them... Ideas?

One of my favorite places to get pillar candles is the Dollar Store! Pillar candles start at $3.50 each at the big box stores, but I scored these for $1 each! Woot!

I'm loving the new look! I'll be back soon with our finished Spring fireplace display!

Fall Fireplace Decor

Well, we're to our final stop in the fall decorations tour...the fireplace! I rearranged it a million times, but am finally satisfied with it. I used things I already had on hand except for the burlap bunting that I made.

The candles and candle holders are part of my everyday fireplace decor. I just dressed them up with a little burlap, raffia, and a leaf from some silk stems I've had for a couple years now. The wire pumpkin is one of my favorite fall decorations. I scored it at Target a couple years ago. I splurged and paid full price for it, but at $10, it was still very reasonable!

The clock and books are part of our everyday fireplace decor as well. I just switched out our usual flowers with a leaf arrangement. I used a vase that we saved from our wedding with some stems I had on hand from a couple years ago. I picked the mini pumpkins I used as filler off of some fall picks I found at Michaels this year. The leaf garland was last year's after season Michaels clearance find. It was 75% off- I only paid $2.50 for it!

For the final touch, I made a burlap fall bunting/banner with the leftover burlap from the dining room runner. I love making banners for special occasions! A couple years ago for Hubby's birthday, I made him a birthday banner which he really liked. Now, I make banners for every birthday and various other holidays. With how much I love Fall, I figured it deserved its own banner, right?! :) I'll do one last fall post with more specific directions for the bunting and my other fall diy projects from this year. Stay tuned!

I'm linking up with Centsational Girl for the It's Fall Y'all link party!