Anyways, I finally did something with the mantle. After seeing the latest Pottery Barn I decided to jump on the bandwagon and use the seashells and such that I already had on hand.
I moved the printer's drawer from the hallway to the mantle. I thought it was a nice focal point so then I added the conch shells and the starfish.
I ended up putting the candles up on books to give it some more height and movement. I'm not sure I like having the books backwards but it definitely looked less distracting that way in the pictures.
The picture below is without the books. Still nice but I wasn't loving the arrangement.
I do, however, love the little stone bird.
Here's another view of the finished arrangement. I may add some fresh flowers at some point. Maybe just a couple of bud vases filled with simple white flowers.
For the first 5 years we lived in this house I left these empty. I thought that they were too dark and that if I put things in there they wouldn't be seen. So they sat empty as I tried to think up ways to light up the book cases. I tried puck lights and lining the back with paper and a few other things before I finally just tried loading them up. And guess what? Once they had things in there it was fine. In fact, they looked great. I couldn't believe that I went all those years with empty bookshelves.
Now, of course, the key that locks the doors to keep them closed has gone missing (by missing I mean that one of my darling children decided that they must play with it and then lost it). So I hope everyone likes the current arrangement because until we find the key the bookcases are going look that way for a while.
~ Gold Shoe Girl ~




Your mantel is fabulous! I love the seashells in the printer's drawer. That is really nice. I love to decorate with shells.
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking it up!
Sherry
Hi there~ Your mantle is so pretty~love the beachy theme and your bookcase looks good - but I hope you find the key for future changes. Thanks for sharing at FNF :)
ReplyDelete