Homefront: White and Natural Mantel

Are you getting tired of my mantel posts yet? Well, it's been so fun changing them up for all the recent holidays and season changing, so bare with me a little while longer! (ps. I DID clean my mirror, but I am not a streak free master.) If you DON'T have a mantle, you can do this on the middle strip of your kitchen table or coffee table, on top of a cabinet, a dresser, a shelf over a tv or desk....

I am a little tired of my usual aqua and sage green, so I decided to go back to a natural palate. These pretty much all consist of vintage items found through super sleuthing for amazing deals, so I can't complain. The adorable raccoon art I found today for a song, so it had to be featured.

Basically, I decorate, by using the larger pieces on the outsides, and angle them in. Usually, I would put a taller piece in the center, but our mantle is so narrow especially with the frame of the mirror that I only am able to use small accessories. And other times, I leave the middle totally bare and just have a little vignette on the sides.

all four A's, I painted them white, expcept for the largest, which a friend gave to me already painted.

I had all four A's up (one per family member), but removed the center two for less of a clutter look. When I go across the whole mantel, it may look overly crowded because of my smaller pieces, though I still use the remove one (or two) item rule. Just do what works and tweak when you feel the need to get nit picky, but don't stress over it! Who knows, this whole thing may look different tomorrow.

The mantle consists of a painted black finial (is an nasty brassy color underneath), raccoon print, letter A, adorable vintage wood bunny, vintage vase with fresh white roses, vintage mattress spring coil, white lantern, glass jar full of white candlesticks, vintage aladdin inspired brass mini vase, tattered vintage book from my childhood and another large white letter in front of a painted white mirror and white deer bust.

I'm loving the natural elements and wish I still had my fresh picked cotton stems to add as well. Anyone know where I can get some?

*****

And on another note. I decided to take the plunge and do a gallery wall over my couch. I laid out 3 different styles, I would love some input on which you think looks best.

1. aqua and white frames and white letters, the largest grouping

2. minus the aqua frames, medium sized grouping

3. minus the white and aqua frames, smallest grouping (though I think if I use this, I would lose the letters and put the oval frame in their place. (if you are interested on how the frame wall turned out, visit here.)

*Linked to The Nester's Mantle Linky Party,
Just a Girl's How Show and Share Day
at Kimba's of A Soft Place to Land's DIY Day 
Life as Lori's Get your Craft on Thursdays
The Shabby Cottage's Thursday Transformation
Women Who Do it All's Idea Sharin' Wednesday
Tales from Bloggeritaville's Thrifty Thursday
Between naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursdays
Jellybeans & Firefly's Show off your Stuff
Jessica's The Hills are Livin Favorite Things Friday
 It's not here at Life in the Pitt's Creative Therapy, but lots of good ones are.