So lit­er­al­ly last week I came home to a vin­tage cast iron man­tle sit­ting in my garage. My hus­band had done some wheel­ing and deal­ing via Face­book Mar­ket­place and snagged this beau­ty for $120!!! I could­n’t believe it…I had a man­tle! I had been swoon­ing over per­fect­ly styled, chip­py man­tles for years just dream­ing of the day I would have my own! 

What we had before was­n’t ter­ri­ble. It too was a gift from the hub­by sev­er­al years ago. I had seen a few dif­fer­ent paint jobs and real­ly I had just migrat­ed away from that style in our liv­ing space.

When we moved the old fire­place out we decid­ed to give this wall a fresh coat of paint. I used Alabaster by Sher­win Williams. The white gave it a more crisp vin­tage farm­house feel.

Once dry, it was time to bring our “old man­tle” to its new home! It is sol­id cast iron and oh my goodness.…so.heavy.

I adore using old pieces like this. It adds instant char­ac­ter to an oth­er­wise cook­ie-cut­ter room. 

Once the man­tle was secured in place it was time for the fun part…decorating!

I opt­ed for a more con­ser­v­a­tive look for now. The truth is, I have nev­er had a man­tle to style. I have read all the tuto­ri­als and saved all the ideas on Pin­ter­est but I have to admit it was/is a chal­lenge when work­ing with a TV as the cen­ter­piece. I tried to do-away with hav­ing a TV all togeth­er but we gave up the fight about 2 days in. Kids and a busy life call for entertainment…no shame. 

Need­less to say, the TV is back above the man­tle and now I have a whole new idea for a shiplap fea­ture to frame it in.…but that’s a sto­ry for anoth­er day. 

For now, I get to enjoy learn­ing how to style a vin­tage man­tle! The sim­plic­i­ty of the pump­kins in dif­fer­ent shapes, col­ors and tex­tures mixed with a bit of gar­land gave it a nat­ur­al vibe that coor­di­nates well with my Nat­ur­al Fall Tablescape.

-PIN FOR LATER-