I was just reading Melissa over at the Inspired Room and she had beautiful photos of mantels decorated for fall.
I am so glad we have a fireplace and we enjoyed it tremendously last year and we are all looking forward to the time when we can fire it up again. But to have a pretty decorated mantel you need to start with a pretty mantel, right?
I enjoy the home we live in and am thankful for it but… it has this ‘not-so-pretty’ mantel that kinda dominates the room. One problem with it is that the top ledge is not smooth so to place anything on it… well, the framed photos on it currently all sit cock-eyed and slanted, which drives me nuts. I am a ‘line it all up, balanced, keep it straight and neat’ kinda girl.
When I look at it, all I see is a steer looking back at me, head on. Try it, look straight at that center block just over the fireplace opening. Doesn’t it look like a bull’s head with its horns sticking out? Or look at it from a broader perspective, my kids see a face; that middle stone is the nose, the opening is the toothy grin, and the vents are the eyes… YIKES!
Painting over it but it may freak too many people out, after all it is “famous” Port Deposit granite. (yeah, but its still ugly!) My only solution to fix it would be to make and place a wood facade over it and paint it white, then I could put color on the walls.
Maybe.
I can’t rip it out because it is not ours to demolish. So what would you do to ‘hide’ it a bit?
2 responses to “Decorating a Fall Mantel”
Oh I see him! I do! He is kind of cute, don't you think? Ha. That is hysterical. Ok, can you paint it? If you can, that would be the easiest cheapest fix. Then maybe craft a new chunky mantel across the top to level it out. A new facade would be great if you can do it, that would give it a real facelift!
We painted our brick fireplace a creamy color then brushed on stain and rubbed it off. It looks great. The dark stain got in the cracks and holes and really gave it character.