Fall Mantle Decor 2016

One of the things I was most excited about for our new house was having a fireplace. After not having one in the six other homes we've lived in, I was super excited to finally have a place to hang Christmas stockings, and a place to swap out decor on a seasonal basis. It's definitely been a process finding pieces that work for our home, and finding things that we're still going to like five years from now, and not just for this season. 

I don't really love the idea of Halloween decorations because the holiday is so short lived. I'd rather buy decorations for just the fall, and then be able to use them throughout the entire season, instead of having to swap them out for a couple weeks when everyone is in the Halloween buzz. As much as I love having my home decorated, the less I actually have to do it, the better. 

The main focal point of this mantle was our new engineer size print that we recently got in the mail. I was wasting time on Etsy a couple weeks ago and found a digital download for the picture and decided it would be perfect for right above our fireplace. I bought the file, and then had it printed, and then Derek built the frame for me out of super cheap wood from Home Depot (tutorial coming tomorrow!). 

After the picture was up, I ran around my house trying to find all our fall decor from last year, which I realized was basically non-existent. We had these white milk bottles, and orange flower arrangements that we had in our last house, and figured they would work just as well here. I had to make a run to a couple stores for the rest of the items though. 

I lucked out last Friday when I went to Michael's and found out that their entire store was basically 50% off, and I had a mobile coupon for 25% off my entire purchase (including sale items), so I was able to get the rest of my decor for super cheap. The two large pumpkins were $8,25 each after the sale and coupons, and the large wooden garland (which I happen to think is super cute and woodsy), was less than $10. I bought a bag of plastic mini pumpkins from Target for $4, and the candle was left over from last year... and then my fireplace was complete. It's not very often I look at something in my own home and think, "Well that's dreamy..." But when I finished putting this together over the weekend, those were my exact thoughts. 

For more fall decor inspiration, be sure to check out last year's post on how we decorated our dining room table!