My Mantel Through the Years

Today Kari & Kijsa are hosting a “Mantel Party,” where everyone takes a photo of theirs and posts it on their blog. I know you’ve seen photos of my mantel before, but it sounded like too much fun not to play along.

Here’s a photo from right after we moved into our house. My daughter Lily was only a toddler then. (Excuse me while I take a moment to ponder where the last 4 years went…)

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that “home” is a work in progress. It’s not something you can create overnight and be done with it. Mine is always changing and evolving. I actually keep photo albums for each of the houses I’ve lived in with pictures of our rooms as they have “grown” with us. It’s never just a simple “before” and “after.” It’s more like “before” and “after-after-after”! So I thought I’d show you a few of the photos I’ve taken of my mantel in the four years we’ve lived here.

The family room was pretty blah and lifeless (except for that sweet girl who was playing in there!), so the first thing we did was paint the walls in a darker shade of beige called “Pecan.” Here’s how it looked with the new paint color (and a new fireplace screen that I found for practically nothing at TJ Maxx!):

It was an improvement–but still just didn’t have enough oomph.

So I asked Handy Dave if he could add some crown molding to the room, trim out those small square windows, and maybe add an overmantel? He had never done anything like that before, but he’s always up for a challenge. So, after Googling “overmantels” to find out what they were, and then buying lots of new tools, he set to work. (You can catch a glimpse of my handy hubby in the mirror as he took the picture.)

Here is the first version he came up with, but it just wasn’t…quite…right (I set a few things up there just to get an idea for how it would look):

We figured out that using the same crown at the top of the overmantel that we had used around the room wasn’t dramatic enough. So we went back to Lowe’s and bought a heftier piece of crown to center over the top.

I also didn’t like how the white background looked, so I asked him to repaint it the same Pecan color as the rest of the room. This was the result:

As I’ve mentioned before, I like to keep things in my family room and kitchen neutral and change the colors on a whim. Here’s what the mantel looked like last Fall:

And here’s what it looked like at Christmas:

This summer, it’s lighter and more neutral, but I’m planning to add turquoise to it soon. I’ll be sure to post a photo of it when I mix it up again.

Lily and I say thanks for stopping by! Now hop on over to Kari & Kijsa’s place to see who else is sharing their mantel with the blogosphere today. You’re sure to get lots of fresh ideas for decorating yours!

If You Want to Take a Peek Around:

• Before & After: My Writing Room Makeover
• Lily’s Little Bathroom Makeover
• My Real (Messy) Life: A Tour of Our House on an Ordinary Day

Tagged as: crown molding, Decorating, fireplace, mantel, overmantel, toile