A Fall Mantel [at my parents’ house + how to “shop your house”]

Apparently, I can’t hold back my urge to splash a little fall around the house – even while on vacation. If you follow me on instagram, then you probably know we are visiting my family in Arizona right now. Yay for vacay!

The 4 of us are here at my parent’s house and my husband is facilitating a training class out of his company’s Phoenix office this week – it worked out perfectly to be able to spend some time in the sunshine! My parent’s live in Iowa the majority of the time and typically come down here for 2 – 4 weeks at a time off and on throughout the winter months. We’ve spent spring breaks and winter breaks down here for as long as I remember, since my grandparents and my mom’s 2 sisters have lived in Arizona full-time since the late 80’s. It’s like home away from home and now with T’s company recently creating their Southwest corporate location here, its a win for us all!

So back to fall decorating…sorry for the detour! We were at Safeway grocery shopping over the weekend and I spotted several barrels of mini pumpkins near the floral section. I so LOVE mini pumpkins…they are theee cutest little things & can be used in so many ways for fall decorating. I also grabbed some spider mums, a small rose gold vase (couldn’t resist) & the sack of mini pumps.

Thinking I would just sprinkle a few pumpkins around their house and enjoy the flowers this week.

Then this happened…
I ended up shopping her house and before I knew it…the whole mantel was put together.
The copper plate was already mounted above the mantel – a Southwest art show find last year…so I guess it was pretty much blank slate which made it easy to start styling.

My mom & aunt recently scooped these 3 brass candlesticks up from a realtor friend who sold them to her for $10 – they were just sitting in her garage! They are waaaay too pretty to be hiding away in a place like that. My mom then left them in her garage until I came down here and rescued these brass triplets again! I need to figure out how to sneak them home in my suitcase 😉

The sunburst mirror (HomeGoods) is simply leaning on the mantel and creates some dimension – a layering effect. It was swiped off the wall from in between 2 framed photographs in my mom’s hallway – a small wall I styled while I was down here in August helping her decorate this new house (more on that trip soon!).
The owl…well he’s normally perched on my mom’s kitchen counter. She picked the owl candle holder up at Bath & Body Works sometime last year.
The rose gold vase was $6 in the floral section of the grocery store where I bought the flowers & mini pumpkins.
This cage / vase / urn thing is one of my favorite pieces of my mom’s, although she can’t remember where she got it! I can picture it being styled with all sorts of fun gems throughout the year for each season & holiday. It normally sits in one of her built-in niches in the family room. It is super lightweight so can be transferred around the house quite easily – something very important to keep in mind while shopping your house!

The pewter “book” (Ross) was resting on a shelf in a bookcase in my parent’s bedroom. I grabbed it to use to add some height to the right side. A stack of books are great props for styling (see how I use books for nightstand styling & coffee table styling).Another look at the left side…
There it is again – a mixed metals fall mantel almost completely pulled together from shopping the house!

If you aren’t on board with this notion yet, then I highly suggest you start practicing!

If you aren’t familiar – here is what it means to “shop your house”:

• shifting things around to different spaces or rooms
• pulling things out of storage to use again after they’ve been packed away because you were tired of it, but didn’t want to get rid of it
• grouping new & different things together to make it look fresh & appealing
• using something you already have, but zhushing it up a bit – creating some sort of DIY project to transform what you already own to give it a new look
  THAT, my friends, is how it’s done. Give it a shot! It is so much fun and the best part is – its FREE!
  

Are you a professional or novice when it comes to shopping your house? Do you pull things from other rooms or do you have a stash of décor items to rummage through?! Please share – I love doing this and want to know where my fellow “shop your house” peeps are!

You can check out my Fall Entryway here.

P.S. I am still unsure about taking the plunge and taking part in the Fall 2015 One Room Challenge as a Linking participant. It starts tomorrow and I am sooooo nervous to commit! I guess we’ll see what I decide tonight – EEEK!

Check out my Spring 2015 One Room Challenge Reveal if you aren’t sure what level of decision I have on my hands at the moment!

Thanks for reading, friends! Please come back soon 🙂

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Pretty Preppy Party