Fireplace Mantel: 3 Ways

After putting away all the Christmas decorations, the house feels blah, bland, a little sad. So my goal this week was to bring a little life back into the beige living room. The fireplace is usually the focal point of the holiday decorations: evergreens, stockings, sparkly stuff. That’s the spot that feels the most barren after Christmas.

However, I also want a little breathing space and more relaxed atmosphere after the lushness of holiday decorating. Another limitation I’m facing is monetary. December brought us the challenges of replacing my car, paying for a funeral, and having to pay for maintenance on our rental home in Maryland because the tenants moved out. So I had to shop my own home for a new look.

I came up with three looks for the fireplace mantel. Each has some positives and negatives.

First up is a simple vintage look. I tried to highlight the turquoise and pink in the painting with the accessories. This mantel makes me feel good because it features my mother’s pink depression glass. She wasn’t a “collector”; she didn’t care what the pattern was or buying any piece she could find. She just liked the pretty pink glass. These pieces and others will soon be going to my daughter who also appreciates their sweet look.

Next is the Winter White mantel. This really looked so much better in real life. It’s main drawback is that doesn’t quite fill the space as much as I would like.

Finally, is the Blue & White mantel. Sorry, the sun was beginning to set as I was taking this last set of pictures and they turned out dark.

I asked my husband if it’s weird to have a portrait of yourself in the living room and of course he said no, cause he loves me. I’m still not sure. There is a lot of sentiment in that painting though. When I was four, my babysitter’s husband George, a fine artist, wanted to improve his portrait skills so he began three portraits: me, his daughter, and his wife.

I knew that if you sat for a portrait you had to sit very still. For a four year old anything over two minutes is torture, but, I was trying to cooperate fully. It’s like not being able to scratch your nose when it itches. Only later did I find out that the painting was based on a photo of me and I was sitting so that he could develop the color palette.

There is a companion painting of his daughter at about the same age, but the paintings are completely different. She was a cute brown haired/brown eyed girl. Unfortunately, George passed away before he could complete the last portrait. I believe his wife kept the initial sketch as he had done it instead of having it completed. This painting hung in my mom’s home most of my life. At her passing, it was one of two things that I especially wanted to protect and keep.

I just searched through the my cabinets for blue & white dishware and added a little faux greenery (come on, it’s January).

So, tell me which of these mantels would you choose: Vintage, Winter White, or Blue & White.

I’d love to hear what you think. If you’re enjoying following along with my posts, please subscribe to the newsletter (look on the right side of the screen).

Thanks for reading along,

Celeste