Think outside the [big] box... and my fireplace.

My house is too WHITE. I mean, really, white walls, white brick fireplace and mantle, white tile floors... just white everywhere!! It's kind of boring. The mantle has really driven me crazy from day one. Thak and Erin use it as their personal garbage receptacle, and then Thak started putting his awards up there (without moving any of the junk that he and Erin amassed up there). It was awful. Finally, I said enough. I have this potentially gorgeous living room, and it looks awful because I allowed Thak and Erin to trash it, and did not make decorating it nicely a priority.

A few weeks ago, I took to Etsy, not quite sure what I was looking for, but definitely needing something vintage and colorful to jazz up this plain white brick mantle. Coincidentally, on the opening page of Etsy, I saw a group of vintage candlesticks in bright colors. Cool! I looked through hundreds, maybe thousands, of colorful vintage candlesticks, and settled on a group of five mismatched ones that were nice and bright, and affordably priced enough, and I bought them. Then I needed something to hang up. I found this cool sign made of 250-year-old barn wood. It was a similr shade of red to one of the candlesticks, so it was kind of a neat addition. Not to mention the price was right, so I bought that, too. I settled on getting those two things in, and then seeing where we'd go from there. The candlesticks came in fast, the sign took weeks, but as of this morning, my mantle has had its preliminary makeover.

It still needs something, though. A large blue antique glass vase would be perfect. I have to hit up the antique stores. I thought it was weird that when I mentioned this, everyone I was talking with told me to go to places like Ross and Pier 1, and stuff like that. NO!! I'm NOT putting some plastic knock off made in freaking China next to vintage candlesticks and 250-year-old barn wood. I'll go to the antique stores here in town, and if they have nothing like that, then I'll troll Etsy for it again, maybe Ebay if Etsy's got nothing, but I am NOT going to finish this project with some molded Chinese-made crap. I was surprised with the suggestion. I thought it was a weird thing to say. Oh, but huge props to J for suggesting an antique shop I didn't know about before. THAT is why I discuss these things with people.

Think outside the box, and you will find unique and great things, too! No, it's not a one stop shop, and even something as simple as a fireplace mantle can take months to get right when you don't know where the stuff you've got in mind is going to come from, but it's just that much better when you finally get it done.