Fall is finally in the air around here! Boots are coming out, football games are being watched, and flannel shirts have already been worn. Now, I'm just waiting for a perfect night for a campfire! Fall also means lots and lots of new decor! ....and that winter is around the corner, but we won't get into that and ruin the spirit :)

This week, I'm teaming up with fellow bloggers to share some fall mantel inspiration hosted by the lovely Carrie from Lovely, Etc. I don't know about you, but I think I look for mantel ideas more than anything, so today you get a whole bunch in one place :) All the links are at the bottom of this post so be sure to check them out!

This year for my mantels, I went neutral. Well, technically for the past 8 years I have gone neutral :) I did add some greens into the decor which is new for me for fall decor. I loved how it turned out! The first mantel is the one in my living room.  

 I played around with this one for awhile. Am I the only one that changes my mantel up at least 10 times before it feels right? 

 If you look around my house, you can tell I decorate with 3 things: books, candle sticks and faux greenery. All of which made an appearance on my mantel this year :) The archway is from Hobby Lobby along with the candlesticks. The eucalyptus leaves are from my secret source ..just kidding, but you can see the post about them here. The books are actually old ones my mom passed down to me. Some are my great grandparents, so I have to be super careful with them. And the corbels are from Decor Steals.

 Last fall I decorated the side shelves with wood and have loved it so much I've kept them their all year with no plans to change it! I like how the color of the wood plays off the color of the mantel. I used to hate this mantel, but I have grown to love it! :)

As for the mantel in my front room, I went completely neutral in here. No color at all, just browns, tans, creams and white. I went with the same idea as my other mantel decorating with books and candlesticks. 

 I moved this wood sunburst mirror in here a few months ago and have been loving it. The size is perfect for the space. I was hoping I would have had a new mantel in here by now but the mantel selling gods aren't selling the ones I want or can afford just yet. I've seriously been stalking classified sites for some some local ones. My goal is to have an antique one in here by Christmas. We will see if that happens! But, for now, this DIY faux fireplace will have to do :)

Faux Fireplace: Tutorial     Wood Sunburst Mirror: Tutorial 

To check out the rest of my complete home fall tour, click the picture below :) 

And now's your chance to check out all the other amazing fall mantels! So, grab some hot coffee or tea, put on some good music and sit back and relax and take in all the inspiration! :)

Neutral Fall Mantel Decor from Thrifty and Chic

Wood Fireplace Mantel Decor from My Creative Days

Neutral Fall Mantel Decor from All Things with Purpose

Simple Fall Mantel: Decorating Around the TV from Lovely Etc.

 

A Mantel All Dressed Up for Fall from A Fresh Squeezed Life

Fall Mantel from A Brick Home

Classic Fall Traditions Mantel Decor from Houseful of Handmade

A Neutral Fall Mantel from Newly Woodwards

Quick and Easy Fall Mantel Decor from Happily Ever After, Etc.

Dollar Tree Pumpkins for a Neutral Fall Mantel from Create and Find

Upcycled Fall Mantel Decor with Flowers, Books, and Pumpkins from Twelve on Main

 

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Summer is winding down, or so they say :) It's still 90 degrees here; I'll take that any day over snow. Fall is bittersweet for me. I love it, I really do, but I hate that right after it is winter. So, when fall comes, I'm always hesitant to grasp a hold of it. It seriously took a lot out of me to add pumpkins and fall decor throughout my house. But, it's done and just in time for this years Fall Home Tours hosted by Marty from A Stroll Thru Life. This week, I'm joining 30 other bloggers showcasing their homes for fall! They are full of inspiration so be sure to check out the entire line up at the bottom of this (long) post :) Ahead of me in the tours is 11 Magnolia Lane, go check how Amy decorated her new house for the fall if you haven't had a chance already!

Most years for my fall decor, I usually go pretty neutral. I decided to change up things just a tiny bit. Not a lot, but enough that it's different for me. I added pastels throughout my house is forms of pumpkins and flowers. Most of the decor though is whites, creams, and greens with hints of pink. 

First stop on my tour is my front room.

 This room is my "calming" room. Ha! It's the only room that stays pretty consistently clean. Which means, when the rest of my house is in chaos, I can walk by this room, breath in deeply, and calm myself. That being said, this room does have it's moments. It's a guest bedroom and kids toy room also. 

Farmhouse Ladder: Tutorial    Console Table: Target     Sofa Bed: Ikea      Bench: Target     Rug: Rugs USA

 I tuck away all the fake food and kitchen toys in this bench. My kids don't play with them that often anymore thankfully, but when they do, I just have them chuck the toys into the bench. Clean up is a breeze. 

Faux fireplace DIY: Tutorial      Wire Hamper: Amazon    Bench: Target

 I got this dough bowl last year and haven't really felt like anything was "right" when decorating it before. Figures all I need was to add some pumpkins :)

 I've been on a mad local search for a vintage mantel to replace this DIY one I made a few years ago. I love it in here and the character it gives, but I'm wanting something more. I'm hoping to find one in time for Christmas! This mantel got decorated with my normal tones of browns and whites. I love using books in my decor...you'll be able to see that throughout my house. In fact, last year I went a little crazy with the books in here (click here) :) I've been so tempted to do that again!

Wood Sunburst Mirror: Tutorial

 Here's a good look at the whole room. You'll also notice that when fall comes, all my blankets come out. I do have a lot out during the summer too...but, promise of cooler weather allows me to get even more :)

Next up in the tour is my dining room. I really wanted to add some navy buffalo check in here this year. I had plans to do it in my other rooms, but nothing felt right. So, it only stayed in here. 

Jute rug: Amazon    Farmhouse Chairs: Amazon      Buffalo Check Fabric: Hobby Lobby

 I usually keep my table pretty simple but during fall and Christmas, I like to fill it up. This year, I went with all white pumpkins and greenery. The larger pumpkins are sitting on wreaths.

The stems in the vase are eucalyptus, pastel pink, green and white flowers along with some pine cones.

 Along my sideboard, I added my curly stemmed pumpkins to my 3-tier tray.

Curly Stem Pumpkins: Tutorial

I thought about adding something else besides the lavender to the frames, but opted to keep it like this. The more I touch them the more deteriorated they will get. 

 I am loving these faux beams I have in here lately. I thought I would have taken them down now, but I'm still loving them...and my husband hasn't asked me to take them down yet either. So, I guess until then, I'll keep them up for a little bit :) 

Faux Beam: Tutorial

Welcome to my living room. I know that arches are apparently out and all straight lines are in, but I just love the arch into my living room. 

 In here, I once again kept it pretty neutral with pops of green and pink. I am loving my new board and batten I put up in here. I feel like it lets me play around with color more. I know that's silly, but it totally helps :) ...obviously no color in this picture below, haha!

 The wood on these shelves have made it a full year! I seriously can't bring myself to take them off. I might end up filling them even more if anything.

  I decided to make a cut little reading area for my kids in the corner. This chair has always been here, but I decided to cozy it up a bit. Plus, the pup really likes the rug :)

Shiplap: Tutorial     Media Console: Tutorial      Builtin shelves: Tutorial

 My mantel just fell into place perfectly. Once again I focused on greens and books. I took off my wreath that usually hangs here to give it a fresher look. 

I chose to add faux pink flower stems and a green pumpkin on my ottoman. I just love how the color jumps off of the all white scheme. 

 Here are a couple of wider angles to get a feel for the room. 

Rug: Amazon      Clock: Tutorial     Ruffle Pillows: Amazon

I hope you enjoyed the tour! Next, hop on over to Decorating Delirium. Here house is simply beautiful! And check out the rest of the line up from this week below :) 

Monday, Sept. 10th   

 A Stroll Thru Life  | Nesting With Grace  | Pink Peppermint Design 

Southern Hospitality | Decor To Adore | Cuckoo4Design

Tuesday, Sept. 11

  ZDesign At Home  | Duke ManorFarm  | Setting For Four

Simple Stylings  | Seeking Lavender Lane | Life On Virginia Street

Wednesday, Sept.12

Our FifthHouse | Our Southern Home | Clean & Scentsible

House By Hoff  | Follow The Yellow Brick Home | Remodelando La Casa

Thursday, Sept. 13

Inspiration For Moms | Life Love Larson  | Monica Wants It

Haneens Haven | My Sweet Savannah  | 11 Magnolia Lane 

Friday, Sept. 14

Thrifty & Chic | Decorating Delirium  | Starfish Cottage 

       Thistlewood Farm | Hymns & Verses | Far Above Rubies

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” 

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Today I'm continuing my Pastel-oween decor series. You can check out all the other projects in the series at the bottom of this post. 

Today's project is a blooming skull or a skull vase. I am all for super easy decor and this is one of them! This literally took me like 5 minutes to do. 

 All you need:
Large styrofoam skull (found at Michaels)
Faux or real flowers
Knife

 There are two ways of doing this. First is if you want to use fake flower stems. Since the skull is styrofoam, the stems stick right into the top. So, just keep adding stems until you get your desired look.

 I decided to go for a whole bunch aproach and keep my faux stems together. This is also the way to do it if you want to add a small votive/vase into the skull to place water and real flowers. 

I took my large knife and cut about a 2.5" circle into the top of the head. I made sure the knife was long enough to reach the bottom of the skull. I made the circle once and was able to pop out a good amount of the styrofoam, I then went around with the knife one more time and the rest came out easily.

 Here's the hole I created. Make it bigger to fit your bouquet or jar. This is all I needed for mine.

 I then placed the faux rose stems I also bought at Michaels into the head. 

 I was contemplating painting the skull, but I really liked the look between the pastel flowers and the bone and brown of the skull. Still creepy, just a pretty creepy :) 

 Be sure to check back in the new few days for more projects! I'll just keep loading them on here :)

Click here to learn how to make this pastel ombre pink skull tree:

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I was provided product by DecoArt and compensated to write about this project, but all thoughts, opinions, and ideas are my own :)

Who says that Halloween decor has to be black and orange? I'm all for changing things up, and truthfully, making things not so scary since I have littles running around the house. Of course, my oldest did tell me that the pink skulls look scarier than the original ones. So, I'm not sure if I helped things or not :) 

Today is the first project in a serious based on Pastel-oween decor :) (see what I did there? ha!) Today, I'm going to share with you how to make an awesome ombre skull tree. 

 This tree is pretty inexpensive and super easy to make. Here are the supplies I used:
DecoArt Americana Neon Lights in Pink Explosion and Green Energy
DecoArt Americana Acrylic Paint in Snow White
48 small skull heads (found these at Michaels, comes in a bag of 12)
1 medium skull head (found at Michaels, comes in a bag of 6)
1 11" tall paper mache cone form
Hot glue
Small flowers

Here's a look at the skulls and tree form before they were painted. 

 Step 1: We want to make a pastel color with the Neon Lights Pink Explosion. To do that, I started off with a good about of Pink Explosion and then added the Snow White in a 1:1 ratio.

 I mixed the pink and white together to give a slightly subtler pink. I painted the cone form with two coats. 

 I then painted the first layer of skulls, 12 of them, with the same first shade. Then I gradually started adding more and more white. So, the next shaded was 1:2 Pink Explosion to Snow White ratio. This layer held 11 skulls. The next layer up had 9 skulls with a 1:3 ratio. The next layer from that had 7 skulls with 1:4 ratio. Then 6 skulls with a 1:5 ratio. Last row had 4 skulls with a 1:6 ratio. By the top row, the pink should be pretty light. Each of these skulls received 2 coats of paint. I sat them on some wax paper to dry. 

 Step 2: (although step 1 probably had about 20 steps :) ). Using the hot glue gun, I placed a dab of glue on the back of each skull and circled them around the bottom. I made sure to keep a "front" area and "back" area. The front is where all the skulls line up perfectly. The back is where there may be bigger gaps where a skull didn't have room to fit. But, since this is in the back, it doesn't matter that much :)

 I then went layer by layer securing the skulls to the cone, making sure to follow the colors from darkest to lightest. 

 Step 3: Paint the medium size skull (comes in a bag of 6, but you can use the rest in one of my upcoming projects). I used a 1:2 ratio of Green Energy and Snow White to paint this one. I did two coats.

There was just enough room on the top of the "skull tree" to add the green skull. There's a hole on the bottom of the skull which I made a bit larger, and it sat perfectly on the very tip top.

 Step 4: I then added random pastel pink flowers in some of the gaps. You know, just to give it more flare :) 

 And there you have it! Who says you can't have pink skull trees at Halloween time?

 You can see really well from this angle the ombre effect. I'm not sure why my little one thinks pink skulls are more scary than bone brown ones, but to each their own, I guess :) 

Be sure to check back this week for more Pastel Halloween projects!

And also, be sure to check out DecoArt and their social media for more inspiration!
www.decoart.com
Facebook
Instagram
Pinterest


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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored post.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via a cash payment, gift, or something else of value to write it. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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