A faux fireplace transformation

After painting my faux fireplace mantel, I finally brought it inside the other day.  I was so excited to get it in my living room and see how awesome it was going to look, how warm and inviting and cozy it was going to make my room feel. 

And it looked like this

 

What?  You aren’t blown over by my fabulous transformation?  Yea, me neither.  It looked so out of place and random stuck in the middle of my wall.  And I hated that bright white outlet right there in the middle of it as well as the white baseboard running along the bottom.  It wasn’t working for me.

So I started brainstorming ways to make it look better.  I looked into getting a fireplace screen to set in the front and hide the fact that there wasn’t actually a fireplace there, but those things are pretty darn expensive!  And I just wasn’t all that excited about spending  so much money (plus I was pretty sure I couldn’t convince Tim that we needed an expensive fireplace screen for our fake fireplace). 

So after some more thinking, I decided to get a flat board and paint it black (with paint we already had) and slip it behind the mantel to cover up the outlet, wall, and baseboard.  I figured it wouldn’t be too expensive to buy a board and it was a pretty fast and simple fix, one that didn’t require a lot of cutting or construction, just some quick painting. 

And then it looked like this

Much better, don’t ya think?  The black board at least gives more of an illusion of a real fireplace than the wall with the outlet on it.  It was definitely a step in the right direction, but it still didn’t give me all the warm fuzzies yet. 

Then, I read this blog by the nester.  It was all about hacking decoration ideas from Pottery Barn.  I was totally inspired to try out some of the ideas and start decorating my faux fireplace mantel with them. 

She had this image from PB on her blog and I figured that would be easy enough to recreate in my house.  I even had some bottles, so I just needed the candles.

 

After I bought some candles, I added my own touch to the PB idea by filling the bottles with acorns from my yard and wrapping the necks with twine.

 

 

Here is another PB image that I liked

 

I noticed the leaves tied around the candle, the apothecaries, and the nuts in the bowls.  Here is my twist on their idea:

 

 

I loved the idea of using things from nature, so I just went with that.  I bought the vine wreath and added the fake berries to it to give it some extra color.  Then I tied some pretty green ribbon to it and hung it over my mantel.  I broke off the dried berries twigs from a tree in my yard and stuck them in the green  bottles, which I already had.  And then I added  the pinecones (cinnamon smelling!) and nuts just to add some more depth and interest. 

 

And in the end, I think my faux fireplace turned out pretty good and it does give me the warm fuzzies now when I look at it.  And the great thing is that it didn’t end up costing an arm and a leg to spruce it all up and make it cozy feeling.

 

Now, if only I could actually light a fire in it when my mood strikes….

 

Oh, but I can!