Messing With My Mantel

Nikon 1-18-13 024snooty pig

Tweaking.  MessingChanging.

Whatever you call it, I just can’t seem to leave my mantel alone.

Meet one of it’s newest residents, Snooty Pig.  You may have noticed the wings.  And, yes, Snooty Pig is a flying pig, as in “when pig’s fly.”  Now, I haven’t actually witnessed this little oinker taking flight, myself.  Maybe his aviation tendencies come alive at night when everyone else is asleep.  (I’ll have to ask my nocturnal kitty.)

The ampersand (or “&” sign) was painted my new favorite color (shiny gold) and added to the mix.  (I think it may be a hard and fast rule that all bloggers must post a photo of an ampersand at one time or another.)

 

Nikon 1-18-13 002pink antlersThe deer head.  It may seem as if I’m slightly obsessed with it.  The pure white worked well for the Christmas season but now that we’re into the new year I wanted to jazz things up a bit.  I thought that hot pink tips would look great on the stag and maybe up his cool factor.  (Well, maybe not so much.)  The first comment from my 13 yr old was that he liked the “red” antlers as it looked as if the deer had just finished stabbing another deer.

Not exactly the look I was going for.

 

Nikon 1-18-13 026gold antlers

I decided next to go for the gold.  And since I tend to end up complicating my projects, I thought, “Why not do stripes?”  The taping ended up being extremely time consuming and didn’t turn out as perfectly as I would have liked.

 

Nikon 1-18-13 016full mantel

I’m digging the striping on it’s own but it seems a little busy with the whole mantel composition.  I’m now contemplating painting the deer’s antlers solid gold.  And the gold frame on the wall (which was caught up in my gold painting frenzy) needs to go back to white.

 

Nikon 1-18-13 022side view

So, I’m caught up in the details of my mantel while other larger projects are waiting in the wings.

(And yes, I do still have my Christmas trees up.  Thanks for asking.)

 

Nikon 1-18-13 031zig zag wall

And speaking of ongoing projects…

I added two skinny solid zig zag stripes to my broken chevron wall.  I like how it looks from the upstairs but from downstairs (where it will mostly be viewed) I think it would benefit from having two more stripes.

So what about you?  Do you tackle the big projects or get caught up in the details?  And for those of you detail minded folk, what is your opinion on the antlers?  (I just gotta know.)

~Miss Charming

 

Sharing at this fun party:

Serenity Now

Home Progress So Far

 

Well, I started my 30 day house shape up a few days ago and have been able to work on something directly relating to improving the house every day.

Most of the time I labored inside with an overworked paint brush but one day I was able to combine my errands with a few antique store “pop-ins.”

I was able to work on the fireplace mantel a bit, too.  The snowy owl above was brightened up with white paint.

 

The owl was a Marshall’s purchase for only a few dollars.  It was originally a tired brown so I changed it into a snowy owl.  (Now it has a place to perch on the top of the mantel.)

 

 

The German Retinette camera was discovered at an antiques mall in town.  I plucked it down on a stack of Spiderwick books and grouped it together on the mantel near the Kodak vintage camera I found this Summer.

 

The one eared giraffe was a .99 cent thrift store purchase that received the white paint treatment, too.

The mounted antlers are my most recent find.  (Target.)  I’m excited that they look similar to bone but are actually reproductions.   (So no furry critters were victims of antler theft in my pursuit of stylish mantel decor.)

 

I also brought home a few pillows in the blue family.  (I just removed the tags so it appears they’re staying.)

 

Aside from a bit of mantel fun, mostly these past few days saw me painting…

And painting…

And painting.

White is a difficult color to use if you’re covering up a dark paint color.  The paint I used was a custom color mix from Behr with primer added but I still needed 3-4 coats for smooth coverage.  And then I decided to repaint some areas in the white that I had just painted the day before in Southern Breeze.  (Really woman, make up your mind.)  It’s amazing how bright and open everything looks with the white paint.

 

Here is an “in progress” shot.  Hopefully, I’ll be finished with the entryway this week.  Now I just need to come up with something new to hang over the front door.  (The wrought iron piece that was there previously is off to find itself a new home.)

So what about you?  Any new animal friends or busy house projects started in the last few days?

~Miss Charming

 

 

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