Reinvention ~

With fall knocking…

I wanted to give our family room fireplace mantel a

new  look and I got it, by turning an old  piece, on its ear!  This vintage European crate,

gets around! It has been all over our house and now I’m 

 calling it into service, as a ‘curio cabinet’…of sorts.

Propped up, the worn wooden dividers make perfect little 

shelves for a collection of velvet & silver. The 

silver baby cup, belongs to our son, who is now 16! I love

collections  that get personal.  The fact that some of the

slats are missing, makes the curio cabinet  even more charming  to me.

I did some sleuthing. The markings date back to

1958, Grivegnee…which is a Belgian suburb. 

I’ll have to dig a little deeper to decipher the rest of  it…

but I love  that this little box has an interesting past.

 I paired it up with one of our antique pizza boards and  a hand-blown

glass vase.  As you can see, our grape vines are just 

beginning to turn color. I love the simplicity of single stems. You?

Off to the right, a simply framed antique German villa etching, I picked

up at the Santa Monica Flea Market…and  a

rosemary topiary & trophy combo.

I like how the worn pieces dull the sheen

of our cherry over mantel.

More silvery gray below, with our vintage French

oyster basket, which will soon to hold

 those magazines I love to leaf through,

while sitting by the fall fire.

A bundle of birch, bound with twine

leans in the corner.

It’s a mellow and neutral palette but I can punch it

up with a bit of color as the season unfolds.

Are you dressing your mantel for fall?