Mantle Decor- Channeling "Out of Africa"

After watching Out of Africa (for about the 12th time) the other day, I got to feeling that it was time for a change in mantle decor. So I took down all the blue glass and sea shells I've had up for the last month or so, and began hunting the house.


I started by polishing up Nana's old silver tea tray (a bit of a chore since the thing is rather pitted!) and scraping the wax off the crystal candle sticks.


(Oh my god, I just noticed there's a hand print way up on the mirror! How it got there I have no idea, that's about 7 feet off the ground!)
Then I pulled out some animal print votive holders a friend gave me for Christmas last year, and a snake print candle I've had kicking around since college! I'm not quite sure how that thing made it through the 5 or 6 moves I've made since then when I'd never used it, but I'm glad now that it did!


I filled in the lower level with some wooden elephants from my collection, and a stamp a friend brought us back from a trip to China:

It's some sort of carved stone, not sure what kind, but light shines through it, which is really pretty. The bottom is carved with the characters that spell our last name, or so I'm told! I think it's a very cool thing, but I need to find someone who can read it to verify that it isn't actually some profanity!

To add a little height to the display I headed out to my field thinking I'd find some seeded out grass and tie a bunch together with a pretty ribbon. Somehow, though, I couldn't find any! I was a little disappointed, but figured since I was out there I may as well go for a walk and see if I could find a substitution. (Ok, so really it was the dog that insisted on the walk!) And look what I found!


The moment I stopped looking for the grass and just started looking at the field, I noticed all this absolutely gorgeous dried Queen Anne's Lace! I love how sculptural it is- it looks almost like an Acacia tree out on the Serengeti!

I love when things just work out like that, don't you?


So there's my Out of Africa inspired mantle! Happily it coincides (and coordinates!) with the beginning of feeling like I need to change things over for fall. I'm trying to resist that feeling since it's going to be a long time before I can pull out the summer things again! I should probably refocus that energy into refinishing the kitchen table, since we're going to be needing it again soon!
I'm linking up to Artie's Vingette Friday over at Color Outside the Lines, so head on over there to see other pretty things people are putting together!

Living Room Decor Experiments

As I mentioned in my last post, I have a large open area above my couch that needs to be filled.

I used to have this large Asian screen there, but Hubby continued not liking it despite my best efforts, so I've moved that up to my sewing/workout room.

I really like the way a set of framed prints flanked by sconces look.


Classic, but with character. I thought that a set of prints from the Turgot map of Paris might look nice.


But Hubby has something against Paris, despite having spent a lovely long weekend there a few years ago. While I thought it would be nice to highlight as a place we visited together, he says that in the grand summary of places we've spent time, Paris doesn't qualify for an entire wall.
I may still override him... though I've been looking for some cool gold sconces for quite awhile now and haven't had much luck. I think I'll have to increase my budget to find what I'm looking for!

But I saw this shot:

And really liked the drama of the dark elements and animal print with the traditional couch (the upholstery of which is just like mine!) I started looking at darker sconces and found these at ZGallerie:

Nicosia Lantern

And I kind of love it. I feel like it would be even better if the back were mirror, or sliver leaf... But I like how it's kind of Mediterranean/Moorish, and totally goes with my mantle of the moment:

Isn't that light glowing in gorgeous? It was sunset. But you see the sort of Moorish lantern I have up there? It would be nice with those sconces/half lanterns, right?
The price is right, but the problem is that they're kind of HUGE. Like 4 feet tall huge! I measured that couch and it's just under 4 feet at the highest point! I don't have a ZGallerie near me, so I can't very well just go get some and try them out, and shipping is a bit high to take that leap of faith.
So I decided to try to GIMP (that's the free Google version of Photoshop) them in to see how they'd look!
First I tried them with a mirror in between:

Not such a fan of the mirror there. But the lanterns show promise... and I love the yellow pillows since my other couch in that room is yellow. Why didn't I ever think of that before?!

Then I tried the sconces with a little (err... LOT of) animal print:

WHOA!! I kind of love that... though it IS all a little large. I mean, I want to fill the space, but three big pieces (and that zebra print should properly be scaled larger since the sconces are 4 feet long and the zebra is actually 5 feet wide!) may just take over the room a bit too much.

I wish they had a smaller version of those lanterns, maybe 3 feet long would be good... OR a location in MA! Then I could just try them out for real!

And while I pondered all that I had the thought that I could go back to my original idea of a group of smaller prints and use Indian Miniatures like I did in the bathroom.

We won't be back in India until next winter at the soonest, but maybe I'll have a look around Jackson Heights while we're down in NY for Passover next month.


These are actually post cards! But 8x10 prints usually aren't too terribly expensive (for prints or lower quality paintings, anyway. High quality miniatures can get quite pricey!) Hmm... so many possibilities!

Easy, Elegant Mantle Decor

The simplest mantle display I know is also a no-fail go-to.


Most people already have either a large mirror or piece of art over their mantle.

Add a couple of classic candle sticks with white or cream tapers. I used crystal holders, but silver, gold or wood work just as well!

Arrange a bunch of tulips in low container, round or square works best. (Other flowers work also, but none are quite as graceful as tulips!) Here I used a turquoise teapot.

I also left a couple of mercury glass votive holders up to balance the lamp I have near the other end, but you really don't need anything else up there!

Light your candles, sit back and enjoy!