There’s a great blogging challenge going on right now at The Nester, so I decided to put my two cents in and join. I had never done this before (and I am a day late – nothing unusual about that!) so I hope that I can keep up with the frenzied pace of a blogpost a day. But this is just what I needed! We have to give ourselves a topic – mine is “31 Days of Being Colorful.”
I had been meaning to do this post about my Fall Mantel a week or so ago, but I wasn’t 100% happy with how the photographs came out. After I finished decorating it, the days were either too sunny or too dreary (it’s fall in New York – weather is so unpredictable). But with this challenge, of being colorful, I definitely tapped into that with this mantel.
I absolutely love, love, love Fall colors, so bringing them into my mantel was pretty easy. The yellows, golds, greens, reds and oranges really speak to me. My great room, where my fireplace is, is always dressed in fall colors – cinnamon walls, deep chestnut mahogany floors, warm tawny paisleys for window treatments and on the furniture, seagrass rugs and antiqued finishes on the mantle – so using fall colors to enhance the mantel comes very easily. Also – the Fall means harvest and abundance – so my decorating can be very fulsome and abundant (read “lots of stuff”) – which I love to do in my décor!
I had myself quite a challenge last year when I did a Fall mantel in blues, whites and silvers! Believe it or not – it blended OK…but it really stood out in the room instead of meshing with it! You can see it here.
Alright, I added a little editing!
The centerpiece of the mantel, that lovely picture of the children in rain slickers and school gear, was a present from one of the women who works for me – Jan. She is such a great person…very talented in her own right. She didn’t paint the picture but she enhanced it with her own brushstrokes etc. so it looks like a fine oil painting up close. I had to use this as the centerpiece to not only bring in autumn colors but to enhance the fall theme (back to school!) and to show my friend that I so appreciated this gift she had given to me. I put the painting in a plain, black frame – but I couldn’t leave it alone. I had to add some gold wax to it – and then I antiqued the whole frame.
A closeup of the centerpiece of the mantel. The Colorful Bee
I miss the summer but I look forward to the beauties of the Fall season…and the gorgeous colors that this season brings.
Hope are you decorating for Fall.Let me know! Have you ever done a Blog Challenge? Let me know about that as well! Happy Fall everyone!
Linking to…The 31 Days Blog Challenge by The Nester
