My Winter Mantle

After all the Christmas is put away I always love to bring in some decorations for Winter so everything doesn't look so bare.

I just purchased some lovely, vintage frames from a friend's antique shoppe and  some adorable silver deer from the after Christmas clearance at Crate and Barrel.

I added in some greens, pinecones and mercury glass votive holders.

Then I got the Ballard Design catalog and decided that it needed something more..

So I picked up some sweet burlap wreaths, also on after Christmas clearance!

I will be putting a chalkboard in one of the frames and I have an adorable "Love" banner that should be here in a few days.

I really like the way it turned out...



We originally had above the mantle painted the same as all the walls~ 

But I wanted it to be white so it appeared that the molding went all the way to the crown molding. 
I also thought it would allow my accessories to really stand out~

After it was painted white~
Note my newly purchased vintage apple ladder to the left of the mantle, I'm in love!

~Also note the big, blank square that was from my Christmas mantle. I took down the wreath and hung it on the wall. I purchased the cutest letter "O" and some burlap ribbon to hang on there :)

And it turned out like this~ 

Now back to my mantle...  I added some accessories~

And a few more~

And ~

Now back to my ladder! I picked it up at the same shoppe where I purchased the frames.  I plan on hanging linens from the rungs.
Here's a better pic, before it found it's home next to the mantle ~

What a fun way to start the New Year! More projects to come very soon. ~Melissa