My Mantle Mantra

I'm at long last ready to design/decorate/finish my fireplace mantle. I've been eyeing this idea for quite some time now:

via interior decor 2010 blog

I love how timeless this idea is.  The color scheme is simple - silver, white, and clear - and the candle holders and accessories are versatile for many rooms and uses in the house should I want to mix things up on the mantle in future years. Even though the above photo was in an article about decorating for the holidays, once I saw it I was in love. This type of decor could sit on my mantle year-round and I'd be completely thrilled; Christmas need not be a requirement for me to have twinkling sparkling reflections of light in my family room. I happened to make a stop into Tai Pan Trading for a quick purchase a few days ago and saw that they were stocked with some candle holders that were quite lovely that went in line with the above idea.  They were well-priced, too. After my PTA meeting yesterday afternoon, I returned to Tai Pan and went to town placing candle-holders in my cart. (glass candlesticks and 3 children would promise pending disaster. FYI I had no children in tow on this particular shopping trip.) Upon checkout, the manager asked "So whatcha got going on? A wedding?"  

Nope, just my mantle.  He smiled and spent the next 10 minutes wrapping each and every single one of those babies in stacks of tissue paper. I felt bad. It was a lot of candle holders.

I'm bummed while he was wrapping that I forgot to hit him up for a donation for my son's school's silent auction fundraiser next month, especially on this particular trip when I was "over-purchasing" on candles and the final price tag was more than I hope to really spend there ever again for a while. I'd rather buy too many than not enough, you know?  I'd hate to need more candles and have to make another trip to find them gone. So, I really missed the boat on asking him for a donation. It's a lot easier to ask for something when you've spent some serious cash at their venue.


I'm a firm believer that knick knacks should have a purpose. I don't want more stuff. But, purchasing 14 candle holders may be in complete disregard of that and definitely could be put into the category of knick-knacking clutterish junk. Hold that thought. They are indeed candle holders. Should the power go out, we will be well-prepared.  

Late last night I went to the car and pulled out my purchases and hunted down my other candle holders. Honestly what took the most time was not figuring out their arrangement on my mantle, but unwrapping all the candleholders from the tissue paper. Once the unwrapping was done, it was really fun and quite fool proof arranging them. I don't consider myself to be a designer or decorator. I'm just a great copier. It would have taken more energy to mess up the mantle with all the candlesticks than it did to make it pretty.  Some of the candlesticks I already owned and have meaning and it was nice to finally raise them from the dead and put them on display. One pair is from Nauvoo, IL. Another couple are from an antique store in Virginia, where I grew up. A vintage glass milk bottle (trying to mix things up a bit and add a bit of quirky-ness) is a recent gift from my husband that he got while in working Virginia. 

I plan on placing on the wall over the mantle this framed piece of art of the Sacred Grove:

This is the place where Joseph Smith, at a mere 14 years of age saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. This began the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Light on the earth was again restored because of what took place in that grove of trees in Rochester, New York in 1820. I thought it fitting to surround this painting with candlelight of my own to remind myself of that very thought.

My Mantel Mantra: 

Fit for a wedding? Check.

Adds to our emergency preparedness? Check.

Symbolic of something dear to me and my family? Check.


So... that may be a stretch to justify a mantle holding up 21 sticks of metal, glass, and wax. But it sure looks pretty.