Thrifty Fall Mantle

 

Fall is one of my favorite seasons to decorate for. What I love about it is the fact that natural things can be  displayed, directly from mother earth.

One of my favorite areas to decorate is the mantle. Since we have no actual fireplace, the primary reason I installed a mantle was so I would have one to decorate. You can read all about the mantle here , from a few years ago.

I knew I wanted a wreath hanging above the mantle, some sort of a fall-ish wreath. I checked out Pinterest and tried to come up with something I could make, and wouldn’t cost a cent. I once again thought how neat it would be to have my unfruitful bittersweet vine hanging full of berries, to make a nice fall wreath with. When I planted the vine, I didn’t realize a male and female would be needed to produce berries.So now I would need to plant two more vines since I have no idea whether the present one is a male or female… :/

Finally, I decided to try and make a burlap wreath. I really had no instructions to follow, so I had to feel my way through until I found the groove.

I started out with a piece of wire that I made into a circle, twisting the ends together. Then I cut 2”x 8” strips of burlap. I then proceeded to tie these pieces onto the wire, pushing them together as I went. At first it looked pretty hopeless, but as more strips were tied onto the wire, it took on a wreathy shape.

I didn’t take any pictures while making this,mostly because I was fairly certain it wouldn’t work out, but it turned out better than I had expected…

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

 

I trimmed some of the ends then, to give it a fuller look.

 

The mantle…

 

The “Thankful” banner is from last year and you can read about it here.

 

The only thing I bought here was the corn and pumpkins.

I made the old door a few years ago for one of our arbors, but had since taken it off.

The beautiful leaves are from a  Maple tree that resides beside our driveway.

 

I painted the jars with spray paint and distressed them using a black paint marker. The jars on the end are filled with plants from my gardens. Don’t look too closely at the one in the middle… I glued cotton to a twig, trying for a pussy willow look alike. :o

 

 

I painted this basket and put a few logs in it. (which, unfortunately will never be used in this room:()

In a few days I will be sharing a few more simple, thrifty fall decorating ideas and also a before and after makeover on this…

Pretty ugly, rite? :) (my type of makeover!)

Thanks for visiting & enjoy this wonderful season of color!

-Mary