Easy tricks for styling a mantle

Hey all! Hope you had a fabulous weekend. I will be taking the rest of the week off because I am headed to the BigApple ;) Miele asked me to participate in a campaign called #pureairblog. I am excited to visit their headquarters in Princeton and learn more about their vacuums and appliances! I will be spending time in Princeton, NJ and then NYC for a couple days. Fall in NYC…yeah..course I managed to squeeze in an extra night…and I am spending it on Broadway(MammaMia with Melissa (bff, traveling up from Philly…whooottt) !! I hope you can follow along with me on Instagram,twitter (@mieleUSA) and Facebook. (follow hashtags #pureairblog to see what we are up to.)

Before I leave I wanted to share some ideas for decorating a fall mantle….

Often times when the seasons start to change we look to making some changes in the rooms we live in. I wanted to give you a few super easy tricks to styling your mantle. It is easier than you think to pull together a look…with things you already have laying around the house. My motto is use things that you love and you will love what you place together. Also remember…”if everything is special….than nothing is special…” you don’t need to display every picture that you love of your kids….because then your eye isn’t drawn to any of them. Make something stand out and work around that piece….here is what I mean….

ACKKKKK….my mantle is naked…and I can’t find any clothes!! (that was my second title option…so I had to share ;)

1. Clear it off and start fresh. A clean palette will help clear your mind of what was previously there and it will help you focus on what direction you want to go.

2. Pick one statement piece. One large something that you are drawn to. It can be something from another room in your house…maybe something you put in storage…maybe a piece from your bedroom. For my mantle, I fell in love—hard for this mirror at Home goods (hey, it had the red sticker on it…60% off original price….it sort of would have been illegal to just LEAVE it there…)moving on. I knew that it would look fabulous and have a nice “beefy” statement in the center. But think outside the box a little…mirrors work great…but so do nice pieces of art…maybe a super large basket…or jar..etc.…Just put something BIG there. Too often I see people place one small piece of art on a ginormous mantle…and it just gets lost. Start big…and work down to small.

3. Go shopping in your house for similar textures. So in my example…my mirror has a rustic driftwood frame…so I went looking for things in my house that were of similar texture, color and pattern to compliment the frame. The twig balls, grey vases, dried grasses and basket all compliment and work with the frame of the mirror. Same is true if you were to use a high gloss white mirror…look around your house for things with the same tones and textures. You are creating a scene that is complete and not jumbled together.

4. Add a dash of color. In my case, I brought over a stack of blue toned books hello YoungHouseLove…). It makes the eye pop around the scene and provides some excitement. Something unexpected is always fun ;)