A Dining Room Mantel

I have been struggling for several months to decorate the mantel in my dining room. It's strange to me to have a fireplace in a dining room. 

However, since it gets mighty chilly in there, I am thankful for that fire.

Back to the decorating...

I see lots of ideas for decorating mantels on Pinterest. So many in fact, that I have a whole board dedicated to them. I will take in all the inspiration I can before I make a final decision as to what to do. 

I did decorate it a bit for Zoie's birthday.

Then got lazy and left the pink puffs up there through Thanksgiving and most of December.

After Christmas it sat empty again until I could figure out something to do with it.

I have a lot of ideas in my head as to how I want to change things. The mantel itself is not my favorite, but Zach likes that it looks old, so it stays. The tile is plain and cheap looking, but changing that is far more invasive than I want to get right now, so it stays.

With a few ideas in my head and Pinterest on my phone I headed off to Hobby Lobby to try and find something to fill it in with. 

I knew the finished product needed to have some relation to food or eating since it is in the dining room. So I started with a canvas picture of a bistro I liked. I think it looks french and that could work with the decor carved into the mantel.

From there I went in search of colors that would draw focus to and from the canvas. 

I also wanted to incorporate a spoon and fork somehow. Zach and I both remember our grandparents having those HUGE ones in their dining rooms when we were growing up. A bit of nostalgia.

Since Hobby Lobby had all of their ceramic ware 50% off last week, I really couldn't pass up incorporating a little of that too.

The finished product is not necessarily as finished as I would like. But it is a good point to start and I can always fill in more later. A little old world, a little nostalgia, and a little clock that Zach got from his Grandma. I think it originally came from her parents when they came from Germany in the early 1900's.

(And of course a baby gate... cause you can't have blazing hot glass without a baby gate)