One mantelpiece, five ways.

I bought this cute little bunch of sweet peas and decided to put them on the mantel. Then I decided to change a few things around. Then I got to thinking I could change a bunch of stuff around. As I mentioned in 7 ways to instantly lift the mood of a room, a change can be as good as a holiday!

The mantel how is usually is, sweet peas added

First I put the sweet peas in my Gluggle Jug because they were the same colour, too cute! I decided to leave the top two photographs (both my work) the same because a) I like them and b) there's nowhere else to hang them right now. All I did then was switch out the little etched semi-circle mirror for a cute 1940s print of some ballerinas that I picked up the other week, and replace the decanter with a vintage baby bottle.

Round one, mantel re-shuffle

I missed the mirror, however, because it is such a squishy little room it really needs a mirror to throw some 'illusion of space' around. So I took my photograph down to move the ballerinas and put up a different mirror, this time an oval one with pink tinged glass and some terribly kitsch palm trees and sail boats etched on it. I also put the original decanter and lettuce back because, well, I like them there.

Round two, mantel re-shuffle

But I thought it was all a bit too 'girly' in the end and I had to make it a bit less prissy and delicate. I changed the mirror out again for something a bit more masculine, replaced the flowers and delicate things with some wooden spindles and a shoe last, and ditched the ballerinas for one of my collage works.

Round three, mantel re-shuffle

But that's no fun, and somehow I lost my sweet peas, which started all this shuffling in the first place! So I retraced my steps a little and ended up with something rather in-betweeny, and I like that because it's just a little bit of everything!

This is how it will stay, for now

We wound up with the sweet peas in the gluggle jug, the collage, the kitschy pink mirror and my strange lettuce with the pretty decanter. I'm happy with that! Well, for today at least...