Cobblestones & Ivy: mantels

Showing posts with label mantels. Show all posts

Monday, May 5, 2014

water color gallery wall

Have you heard of Waterlogue? It's been all over the blog world recently so you probably have, but if not, you really need to check it out! It's an app that turns any picture into a water color, and I'm kind of obsessed with it. For $2.99 plus the cost of printing, you get a personal piece of art!

I used Waterlogue and the Shutterfly app to create this wall in my living room:

These are all pictures I've taken on various trips. Kauai, Cancun, Paris, London, Ireland, and Venice are all represented. I love that I took each of them, and now they're such a cool part of my living room. This wall is the first thing you see when you walk in the front door, and it makes me so happy every time I see it.

For the past 7 years, that wall has looked like this:

I liked the mirror and sconces, but it was time for a change.

I love the bright white frames and the addition of more color in the room. I'm trying to get away from having a specific color for each room (it was purple in this one, and I'm slowly getting away from every accessory being purple), and this has made a big difference.

I ordered 4x4 prints from Shutterfly for $.15 each, and these frames were $1 each at Michaels!

They're the unfinished ones that you can paint however you want. I spray painted mine white, but you could do any color, or a variety of colors, to coordinate with your home.

I love how the white frames make the colors in the pictures really stand out. This church in Ireland is one of my favorites!

This is my very favorite of all the pictures I've used Waterlogue on though.

It's a beach in Kauai, and I love everything about the way it looks as a water color. So I ordered an 8x10 print of this one, and (for now) it's sitting on the table next to the couch.

If you haven't tried Waterlogue yet, what are you waiting for?! It's so fun to see your pictures transform into water colors, and I love using pictures I've taken in my travels to create amazing and unique decor in my home. It's the only app I've ever paid for, and it's so worth it. I'm so excited about this new wall!

I've made a few other changes in my living room lately as the weather has started to warm up. I'm not sure I love this mantel, but what I do love about it is the addition of the flowers and grass in the vase (from Kauai!):

I've never been a big fan of fake plants before because I always thought they looked too...well, fake. You really can find some that are pretty real looking now though, and I'm loving the feeling of bringing nature and spring inside (I also love Ellen :) ).

This is what that wall looked like last spring:

The mantel decor is more simple now, and in December I added the shelf above the TV. It's a beautiful slab of wood with the bark still on the edges, and I just sealed it with polyurethane to keep the natural look.

Between the mantel, the shelf, and the vase next to the TV, I've added a lot of green plants and it gives the room such a happy, springy feeling.

I've got one other change in this room coming up soon! It involves the mirror that used to be above the couch...

Thursday, September 19, 2013

fall mantel

I put out some fall stuff a few weeks ago and I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures. I love this time of year, and after the brutal summer we had this fall is especially welcome. I love adding orange to my living room and kitchen. Opening my box of fall decorations is always so fun, and when you add in pumpkin, cinnamon, and a Leaves candle from Bath & Body Works...I'm in heaven.

For the last 2 years, my fall mantel has looked like this

I loved it and wanted to keep some of it the same, but I did want to change it up a little bit so this year I made a couple of small changes. Nothing is new, just moved around which is always fun. I'm very traditional when it comes to holiday decorating, and for me part of that is using the same stuff from year to year. I love to add in a few new things each year or use the old stuff in a different way, but for the most part I like to find things I love and stick with them. There's something so comforting and familiar about pulling them out of the box and surrounding myself with things I love.

My leaf wreath, fall letters, and leaf garland all made it back this year, and I still love them all.

Instead of the candles on the left, I filled a lantern with some little pumpkins and gourds

And on the right I used this ceramic pumpkin instead of the "give thanks" sign.

I love how festive it is!

Besides my mantel, I put out a few other fall things around the living room and kitchen, including my fall yarn wreath

This is on a table next to the couch. That platter will come down when I have some fall treats to put on it, but for now I'm loving it here.

Some cute pumpkin towels in the kitchen

And one of my favorite fall things are these leaf goblets. I bought 6 of them at the dollar store a couple of years ago and I love them. I was so excited to take them out of the cupboard where I keep my holiday dishes. They're just more fun to drink from than a regular glass.

Linked to

Thrifty Decor Chick

Monday, December 3, 2012

Christmas mantel

For this year's Christmas mantel I used the trees I made that I showed you here and here. It took a lot of rearranging to finally get the end result, but I LOVE how it turned out!

This sparkly reindeer is new this year and I think it might be my favorite part of the mantel.

I already had the garland and the pine cone and berry picks I added in to fill it out a little more, and since I made all the trees, the whole thing came together pretty inexpensively. I love using things I already have in a different way than how I've used them before.

I'm still working on a wreath idea for above the mantel so that part will come later, but I'm loving how everything is coming together!

Do you do one crazy deck-the-halls day, or take your time and do things slowly like I am? I've done both, and even though the mess of doing it slowly is driving me a little bit crazy, I kind of like it this way. In past years I have just used all the same stuff with a few additions each year so I pretty much just put everything where I had put it before, but this year I'm changing things up quite a bit so it's taking more time to figure out where I want it all. I'm having so much fun with it!

Linked to

52 Mantels ~ Christmas Mantel Link Party

Embracing Change

Monday, March 26, 2012

updated spring mantel

Last week when I showed you my spring mantel I told you I was working on something to replace the Happy Easter. It works since Easter is coming up, but I wanted something that could stay out past Easter for all of spring. Here's what it looked like before

The things I've done with buttons are some of my most popular posts and the ones that get pinned the most (you can see them here, here, and here), so since you guys like them I thought I would do another one.

I painted the frame white and cut some cute polka dot paper to fit, then using buttons I had in my stash I made some cute little flowers. Since I knew I wanted it to hang on that hook stand, I glued some sparkly pink ribbon to the back of the frame.

I'm still loving my spring vases and those bright and cheerful flowers

Here's my updated spring mantel now

And my invitation for the weather outside to join my bright and happy mantel worked! We have had amazing 70 degree weather the past few days, and even though I know we will most likely still have some cold days before winter is really over, I'm loving it while it's here!

Linked to

Monday, March 19, 2012

spring mantel

I drink these in the morning

I always just threw the bottles away after I was done, but one day I looked at it and realized the shape was kind of cute. I took the plastic label off to see what it looked like underneath and was pleasantly surprised to find that it's not glued or attached to the bottle in any way. It's just kind of shrink wrapped on. I knew right away what I wanted to do with the bottles, so I started saving them. All I had to do was take the plastic wrap off and wash them out.

I used them as vases for these bright and cheery spring daisies. I bought a package of wooden letters, painted them Robbins Egg Blue, and glued them on. Easy as that!

I had originally planned to wrap yarn around the bottles, but after playing around with it for awhile I decided I liked the clean and bright look of the plain white better.

I knew my flower platter would be the perfect addition to my mantel, and I'm working on a little something to replace the Happy Easter that I think will work a little bit better. I'll show you that soon.

This mantel is my invitation for the snow from this weekend to melt so the weather outside will match the bright cheerfulness I have inside!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

travel mantel

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have a trip to Ireland coming up {next week!} and after Valentine's Day I decided to decorate my mantel with some things I've accumulated in my travels.

This is one of my favorite quotes about travel, and it's on a map of one of my very favorite cities ~ London.

I spent 2 semesters in Hawaii during college and I have lots of things that remind me of my time there. That sand is from a beach on the North Shore of Oahu, and the wood block was carved for me by a friend there.

Silk scroll of the Great Wall of China, bought in Beijing

This tree branch was hand painted on a very thin...like tissue paper thin... piece of silk. I bought it in Suzhou, China.

The crystal globe is from Prague, and the Eiffel Tower is, obviously, from Paris :)

I'm loving this little tribute to my world travels and can't wait for my next adventure.

Countdown ~ 8 days!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Valentine's Day mantel

After Christmas it felt so good to put everything away and not have so much clutter everywhere, so for Valentine's Day I decided to go pretty simple on the decor. Other than my mantel the only thing I really have out is a candy dish and I'm loving the simplicity.

I loved this felt leaf garland I made for my fall mantel, so I decided to do something similar for Valentine's Day.

I cut out a bunch of hearts in different sizes and shades of pink and strung them together using pink yarn. Once it was done though, I decided it looked cuter along the front of the mantel than if it was hanging down like a garland.

I've got the Great Purge of 2012 going on at my house right now, and as I was going through some boxes I found this adorable picture that I bought in high school when I worked at Hallmark. How perfect for Valentine's Day decor!

As you can see here and here, I love making things out of buttons. Sorry it's a little blurry, but I found this paper at JoAnn that says *I love you* all over it. Perfect.

First I printed *all you need is love* on the paper. It was 12x12 so I had to cut it down to 8.5x11 so it would go through the printer, then again to 8x10 to fit in the frame. Then I just glued buttons on to make the heart. I love it!