Since we moved to Sassafras, we have done very few changes to our sweet little abode. I always felt as if the living room was well, lacking in some way. First of all, the room has to serve many purposes. It has to be an entryway for the front door, and it is the only living/family space in the house. It can't be a formal sitting area because it has to house the tv, which I've been not so lovingly calling, the 3rd member of our family.
We don't have a fireplace in the house and for a while now I have been really wanting a mantel for many reasons: 1. To give the room character. 2. To have a focal point when you walk in the door. 3. To have another element to decorate with. 4. To have a place to put my stockings at Christmas.....let's be honest, this should be number 1. I had this great idea that I was going to buy an old mantel at a yard sell and re-do it to match our trim. After I thought about it for a while, I realized my mom and dad had one that they weren't using and was just sitting on the back porch. I just knew it was what our room needed. It was originally my great great aunt's mantel. It was passed down to my grandmother who didn't have a use for it so she gave it to my grandfather's mother (my great-grandmother) who used it for many years. I assume after she passed, it went back to my grandmother who still didn't have a space for it, so it ended up at my parents house. My parents were more than happy to give it to me and so started this ongoing project.
Here is the mantel before the re-do.
The first thing I had to do was to see where the mantel would fit best in our house and as much as I HATED IT, I came to the conclusion that the tv MUST hang above it. There was just no space for the large piece of furniture that the tv previously sat on. We bought a wall mount and after the scariest moments of my life, the third member of the family was proudly displayed for all (ugh) to see. There goes my decorating ideas...
Don't get me wrong, I love the flat screen as much as the hubs, but it's JUST SO LARGE! And then there is a pesky problem that surely I'm not the only one that has found: WHERE THE CAT HAIR DO YOU PUT THE CABLE BOX???
As I was saying, until now, we have had the television, on it's stand, on top of a piece of furniture that matches our bedroom. It had two media cubbies that housed the DVD/VCR (...yes I said VCR) and the cable box (By the way, those things are huge! Couldn't they make them smaller?). But if you mount a tv on the wall, you are forced to leave all the cable cords hanging out all over the place. UGLY! Of course I immediately used my internet savvy to seek out solutions from people who I'd never met and have no clout whatsoever. Enter Google.
What we decided to do was cut a hole through the wall (YIKES) and run the cords through walls, up into the attic, or down underneath the house as needed, and into the closet in the hallway where we could easily store the cable box. The only problem with that is we need this thing called a remote extender, that is over 300$, so that our remote signal will shoot through the closet door and wall. Not happening. So for now, when we watch tv we are keeping the closet door cracked so the remote can "see" the box. Whew...
I got to work right away sanding, priming (with oil base) and painting. I had to wait for Daniel to find some time to actually put the mantel on the wall which led to many other little projects (bless his heart), and of course in the meantime I made something to decorate with.
Mantle after paint! I love it!!
Because it isn't a real fireplace, we filled the hole with bead board. I wasn't sure about it at first, but I really like the way it turned out.
I couldn't have lots of height on the mantel because of the all mighty tv, so I settled for very simple fall decor. I strung pinecones on a piece of twine to make a runner for the top. And got a stalk of wheat and tied a ribbon around it to add a little something else. I would love to add a burlap pennant banner to the front by Thanksgiving.
Other than that I have been fairly low key with fall decorating. I replaced the birds nests I had lying around the house with pinecones and put "fall-ish" pictures up.
I finally got some pumpkins and a mum! We didn't carve them last year and they lasted for so long! I may or may not this year. My friend Amber has some really cute painted ones and I'm dying to do one!
I do want to get a more fall friendly pillow for the bench (also from my parents haha). It's not been first on my list because the colors are still appropriate. Maybe I could make some burlap ones?
Hope everyone is having as much fun as I am decorating for fall!
Liv
