Thursday 21 June 2012

summer mantle




I didn't plan to do this post - I have a few other's up my sleeve - but there is a mantle party going on, and I've just changed mine around, so here it is.


When I was doing it, I wasn't thinking summer.
I had almost forgotten about the summer as we have had so much rain here recently. I just needed to change it because the last mantle was too difficult to dust (therefore I didn't, for ages !).
I started with the idea of doing it all white, but it kind of evolved.


I used things I had (some of you will have seen them before), mixing the textures and keeping the colour palette pale.


Old books, an oriental postcard and a piece of metal (found at the beach) have the perfect colour to tie everything together.


On the other side of the bird cage, my galvanised planter has lovely shades of grey, and the dried moss, raffia and driftwood tie in with the items on the other side of the birdcage.


At the end, a white corbel from my old office and a wire basket, that I usually keep in the garden.


Another little postcard, an oriental fan with a fish. I put one in the cage too - a little bird hung from a clip and some string.



I loved the last (dusty) beach junk mantle, but I think I love this one even more. The colours go so well with the rest of the room. I wish the photos looked as good as the actual mantle !


Before I go, I just want to show you something else.


This isn't a pond in our garden, this IS our garden. Virtually our whole garden was under water. That's how much rain we actually had one Sunday. Well that's the UK for you, and why I forgot about summer.
(It's also one of my many excuses for not making the garden pretty !)

Linking up with

The Lettered Cottage

17 comments:

  1. You've got some fun stuff on your amazing mantel. I love the old wood top and chunky corbels!

    We've had flash floods in northern Minnesota, too (very rare occurance). The Target store our daughter works at was flooded, and the employee cars had water up to their windows.

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  2. I love your mantel even without anything on it, but I do love the soft palette you chose for the summer. You've got some very unique pieces and that's what makes it so fun and intersting to look at!

    Sorry about the rain!

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  3. Fiona this decoration is so lovely! And I love those black and white balls! And come to Greece already! It's so hot these days, tomorrow we're going swimming! Jealous a little? :-)
    Hugs!

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  4. First thing first, yikes! I've been in that flooded garden place!
    But aside from that, I do love the grays and blues and whites in your arrangement. The metal cagey thing looks like a Russian palace!

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  5. Gorgeous - I love your decorating style Fiona xxx

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  6. I like your black and white balls.

    ~Bliss~

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  7. To quote my middle school students - "OMG" - that mantle is wonderful!
    I just talked to my sister who has been in London on business. She said it RAINED, not just rained, for four straight days. I guess I shouldn't mind the fog we have been having.

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  8. Love the mantel, such a great variety of objects, totally get the dusting thing! It's the one problem (other than the kids grabbing everything) with displaying things on the mantel!

    OMG the garden! This rain has been horrid, fingers crossed summer makes an appearance soon!

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  9. Thank you for checking out my guest post over at Olga's blog - you've upped the international factor by another notch :-)

    Your mantel looks fantastic! I love all textures and the soft colours. Your metal beach find is really intriguing, and love the galvanized planter. I'll have to go back through your posts and look for pics of your beach junk mantel - sounds interesting!

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  10. Fantastic job on your mantel! The pale palette and mixture of textures makes a quiet but beautiful statement.

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  11. Oh, Fiona, how's your garden doing? We are getting loads of rain here! I LOVE your mantel - love the mix of metal, driftwood, raffia. It is beautiful.

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  12. Hi Fiona - I love the colour scheme on your mantle, it looks really great. Cant beleive I have a pair of cobels exactly like your white one in the basket - I use them for book ends, but may have to try them in a different location after seeing yours in the basket. CJ

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  13. Beautiful mantel. So sorry about your garden...xo

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  14. Your mantle looks beautiful. It´s very YOU!! I love the colour palette, it´s so soft and elegant.

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  15. I love your mantel! I don't know how I stumbled over here...I was blog hopping and found myself here and am glad I did. I just switched over my mantel the other day too!! Oh, and btw I love that corbel in the basket!

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  16. Love your galvanized pieces! That's a whole lotta water!

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  17. Okay, I know it rains, heavily, even, in the UK, but actually drowning gardens is a bit much! So sorry to see this, but your assembling your summer mantle seems to have been great therapy and it looks lovely!!

    Poppy

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