Mantle Makeover...or some sort of attempt at one

This is what our mantle has looked like pretty much since we moved in 2 years ago:

Now the fake plants are new and that awesome mirror was actually left in the house when we moved in. There was some serious ugly, outdated fake foliage that I scraped off. It chipped the paint, but it added to it's worn look anyway :)

I've been kind of sick of this mantle's randomness and shear, plain ugliness for awhile now. I'd often look around for decor items I could add to it, but found they were so expensive, and I wasn't yet set on any specific kind of style...until Pinterest. Now I've gathered quite a few ideas from there before I decided what I really liked. And I try to do as much on a dime as I can, as we're not made of money. I also wanted something that I could add to or take away only a little bit during the fall and winter months (my favorite holidays lie within those months). Once I settled on an idea I set out for Goodwill and some nearby garage sales and found some true gems.

Here's what the mantle looks like with those priceless (quite literally) items:

With the sale stickers on 'em and everything :) I set out to transform those items. I wanted a clean look with a small amount of color. I figured it would make it easier to decorate for fall and Christmas without having to take everything down and replace it with new holiday stuff...I've got a few ideas up my sleeve on how I'm going to dress up this mantle for the holidays, but that can be found in another post later on.

I decided to go with white and ocean/seafoam kind of color with a little bit of black for some pop. The clear vase on the left I ended up spray painting white...and HATED it. So I went to Wal-Mart and bought another one for $3 and used this website here to give it a cleaner and shinier look. Now, I couldn't find the exact enamel paint they used, but found the closest thing to it. It was rather difficult to paint the inside of the vase with that stuff. The brush left a lot of streaks that were pretty noticeable from the outside, so I just dumped a ton of the stuff inside the vase and manipulated it enough to coat the inside pretty evenly. The only thing with doing it this way was that a lof the of the paint went to waste when you set it upside down to 'drain out.' But one small bottle of that paint only cost me about $1 at Hobby Lobby so it's not the end of the world. Now, the next thing you're supposed to do after it's painted it either let it air dry for 21 DAYS (yeah, that's what I thought ?!?!) or bake it in the oven for 30 minutes after it air dries for 48 hours. So I did choice #2 and this happened:

I was a bit bummed, but there was no way I was going to re-do this. I figured I could turn the vase so the big bubble on the bottom is facing the wall and the little bubbles on the top are hardly noticeable from far away. Not perfect, but what really is anymore?

Also, another note about the little ceramic vase and ceramic bowl/dish that I spray painted. I started with a primer. It did it's job. Then thought I'd like a flat paint look...I was wrong. It was very rough and much more dull than I thought it would be. So I painted another layer of white satin...and some of the paint ran (darn Texas humidity!). However, this isn't very noticeable from far away either. Nice thing about white vs. color paint, the light doesn't really catch all the imperfections.

Oh, you want to see what the final product looks like? What does the mantle look like now?

Drum roll please...

My absolute favorite piece is the framed chalkboard I made. I plan on changing it up with different verses and during Christmas make it a countdown or something :) The little ceramic dish/bowl I can put pine cones in for fall and glass ornament balls for Christmas. I also purchased 2 black iron candle holders that have a wide base so little pumpkins can fit on the top of those and/or glass ornaments. And I have a few other clear glass items I plan on filling with something during the holidays to add to the decor. And some ideas rolling around in my head for a wreath of some sorts to hang over the mirrored window frame. And, and, and...there's so much you could do!

Though there were some hiccups and a few minor mishaps, I am very pleased with my mantle makeover. What to do next? More wreaths? No, my husband will probably kill me...I spent most of my pregnancy last year creating a wreath for every season/holiday and could probably come up with more if I had the money.

I've got a few other Pinterest ideas I may attempt. Don't know what or when, but there'll be something a-brewing!