Neutral Fall Mantel

Fall vibes are sneaking their way into the cabin this week. Here's my neutral Fall mantel!

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I'm happy to be part of the Celebrate Fall Home Tour, hosted by Sand Dollar Lane! If you're visiting from My Family Thyme for the first time, welcome! Feel free to comment and introduce yourself!

This mantel is one of the best DIY projects we have done in the house. It's pretty special to us because of its history with the house. It's from a local factory built in 1917 and it once floated away into the woods in a flood and we almost lost it. If you'd like to read the whole story of the mantel, you can find it here.

Usually, I love color.

Remember this Spring was all about yellow and green?

Last Fall was purple and orange.

Winter was pink.

I don't know what came over me this week, but I decided to do a neutral fireplace mantel!

And I didn't spend a penny on it.

Let me show you how I did it!

I set an antique mule collar I have had for years on the mantel as the center. It seemed like it wasn't quite enough on its own, so I added a thrifted empty antique oval frame with round glass. I like how the two shapes work together.

Then I pulled out some antique crocks of various earthy colors.

I dried the pokeweed from last year's vintage glass and brass Fall porch table so I added them to this crock.

My tip: look around your yard and on roadsides now for any plant or weed that will dry well for Fall and Winter decor. It's free! Even if you're not sure how something will dry, give it a try. If it doesn't look cute after it dries, you can always just throw it away.

I added some pheasant feathers I bought last year and never used to this antique crock.

My tip: If the feathers or florals are too short for the vessel you're using, ball up paper or paper towels and fill the bottom of the vessel to build height and then add the filler

And then I remembered a brass colored metal leaf tray that I thrifted a few years ago.

To balance that leaf on the other side of the mantel, I added a few brass candlesticks.

And my cute little brass quail family that finds its way into my Fall decor every year.

I sprinkled some faux little white pumpkins around.

I bought these last year, after Fall. I decided to buy them after throwing all of the real little pumpkins I bought for decor to the chickens.

The set of them cost the same as real pumpkins and this year all I had to do was pull them out of storage. I love them!

Down on the hearth I used an antique copper double broiler with this cute blanket scarf I wore all last Fall and Winter.

And a few more little white pumpkins.

As a side note this fire grate isn't super cute, but it is super useful and its one of my favorite purchases ever. It makes the logs for your fire stand up vertically and creates a warm and beautiful fire in the fireplace.

Now back to the pretty stuff...

This basket of tree bark was already on the heart from last year. I love the texture the bark brings in. As I was bringing in firewood last year, the bark fell off some logs. So then I kept an eye out for those logs and saved the bark from each one to put in the basket. By the end of last Winter I had filled the basket.