A Look At Our Fall Mantel This Year

This might be my favorite fall mantel we’ve ever done, so let’s take a look, because all of this is coming down tomorrow to make room for Christmas decorations!

Full disclosure: this was all PJ. He went all out and did it all himself and this was 100% his vision. And I love it so much. He went for an almost cinematic theme this year, i.e. something you might see in a movie or on a film set. It feels very theatrical to me, but not in an over-the-top kind of way.

I also love how he made it all seem “thrown together”, like he just put it up in a few minutes and it turned out wonderfully. Of course, nothing with PJ is ever just thrown together, but I think that’s a testament to his talents: he makes things look easy, because we all know the easier something looks, the more work it probably was.

Nothing on the mantel was purchased this year: everything that’s up there we’ve had for years, which is probably my favorite part. Using existing items in new places is a fun way to play around with your creativity by coming up with different designs and switching things around. We believe if you invest in good, key pieces for your home, you’ll be able to do this for years.

The leaf garland is one of my favorite decor pieces we have. We got it from Pottery Barn years ago and it’s moved around the house a few times before becoming a staple on our mantel in the last few years. It sort of sets the stage for the entire space and everything else gets added around it. It’s filled with beautiful colors of leaves and pine cones, and PJ added some string lights to give it a little bit of a glow. At night time when it’s just the string lights on, it looks so magical.

PJ also added a few of our trusty branches. He found these on the side of the road 5 or 6 years ago as someone was throwing them out (they were part of a dead shrub that a house was getting rid of and we’ve never been able to tell what kind they are) and we knew they would look so good in a vase, so we quickly snatched them. We’ve had them ever since and we keep them up, in some capacity, year-round. I think they look perfectly at home on the mantel though, don’t you?

While most of the pieces here are fake, we did use a couple of real pumpkins while decorating (can you guess which ones they are?). The rest were purchased at various stores like the Dollar Tree and Walmart I’m pretty sure. The brown vase was found at a local antique store, and the twin yellow vases on the far sides of the bookshelves are from Pottery Barn.

In keeping with the theatrical theme, PJ printed off a “poison” label he found online and taped it to a wine bottle. How cute is that? For our Halloween party he had two little antique wine glasses filled with wine from that bottle sitting beside it for an added touch. Very clever, PJ McKay. Very clever.

Overall the room feels super cozy, collected and welcoming. AKA, our favorite kind of room. It feels simple, yet, if you look closer, you’ll notice all of the little random pieces scattered throughout the mantel and on top of the bookshelves and then you realize it’s anything but simple. Like I said, it’s probably my favorite mantel he’s ever done. I’ll be sad to take it all down!!

Like all good things, though, it must come to an end. But that’s okay, because when it does, that means we’ll begin decorating for Christmas!! Our Christmas mantel gets just as much love and attention (if not more) as our fall one, so I’m excited to see what we do with it this year. Our front room is small, but what it lacks in space it makes up for in charm, and it’s one of our favorite rooms in the house.

Happy holidays!!!