mama's got a brand new mantel...

if you've read my blog from the beginning, you know that I had a long running battle with my wimpy mantel in Chicago.

It makes me anxious just to look at that mess of a mantel. Well, now we're in our new home and our mantel is HUGE.

There are so many things we can do with it but for now I am repurposing items we had in our condo.
soon after unpacking our mantel looked like this.

I kind of took everything as I had it paired at our old place and used it "as is." It was fine, but wasn't really cohesive. The top of the mantel was too disjointed for my liking.

The height relationship among the vases was too small for the space. While the colors of the vases and the accents inside of them were just a little off. SIDE NOTE: The two pictures on the right are staying there for now until they move to their permanent home in other rooms. But we love them so much we are keeping them on the mantel for now. 

The bottom area of the fireplace was kind of a collection of things that didn't have a home. The vase filled with decorative green straw globes is my favorite piece, so I just put it out there until I could find a place for it. The decorative cream colored swirly disc was a flea market find that I just can't figure out what to do with. But for now, it houses my workout equipment. The basket of blankets had to stay. I am one of those people who has to have a blanket on while watching TV, even if I'm not cold.

So after playing around with the different pieces, here is the new fireplace/mantel arrangement.

I took the globe-filled cylinder and put it atop the mantel to fill the space better and make the most of the height of the fireplace. I then removed the spiral sticks from the green vase, put them in the white vase and switched places with the silver candle holder. By simply rolling all of the blankets and arranging them in the basket, it helped to create even more interest at the base of the fireplace even though there are fewer accents.

The new look plays in nicer with the overall look of the room (excuse the bad TV capture). It is simplified and doesn't distract from the rest of the room. You may be wondering what happened to the pieces I removed. Well, never fear! Those pieces have been repurposed and will be featured in an upcoming post.

The mantel is still a work in progress, but as it stands, I am happy with the look. for now...