You are welcome, lucky reader. I mean, I’m pretty much the Mother Theresa of vintage furniture. The Santa Clause of Antiques. Or maybe Brian’s holding the phone, with his finger on the “Hoarders” producer speed dial number … Regardless, I’m giving this amazing trunk away to the winner of my facebook mantel styling contest. Read all the details on my Holiday Mantel Styling Post.
You know who else has a lot of great pieces who is awesome? This chick:
I mean, look at her stuff. Isn’t it neat? Wouldn’t you think her collections complete? NO, Ariel, it’s never complete. Keep collecting until stupid Eric buys you some real estate on Beverly and La Brea and you can finally open that store you’ve always wanted to.
I’m on day four at Disneyworld, obviously. But many of you do know my affinity for the brilliance that is “The Little Mermaid.” I wish I could say that my friends Scott, Orlando and Corbett don’t all know the lyrics of that song and don’t sing it all the time. But we do, and we do.
AHEM.
I am very excited about all the mantels that have been submitted already for the mantel styling contest. Some of them are pretty awesome and I’ve already gotten a few really good ideas. It’s weird that sometimes as a designer you overthink things and you don’t see really great, really simple ideas that are kind of genius. So I decided to post some of those ideas right here, right now, to try to entice even MORE of you to join and if not, at least participate by voting for your favorite.
Plus, aren’t just curious about seeing inside strangers’ houses? Don’t let your inner voyeur down. I know that THOUSANDS of people read this blog a day and only hundreds have voted. Come now. VOTE. I’d be the worst politician. My speeches would consist of me just saying, “C’mon. Just vote guys, other people are. C’mon!” But seriously, c’mon …
Here are some good simple ideas that I’m liking:
Ornaments on top of glass bottles. I haven’t done that before and it’s a pretty great simple idea. So cute and totally makes sense. It’s like little baby heads on the top of some short/fat or tall/skinny bottles. The effect is pretty great for how inexpensive it is. (By Shauna Mallloux)
It’s just paper, cotton, a retro style garland, and a vintage frame. This mantel is extremely inexpensive and yet totally great. I love so much about it. (By Melissa Lee and her blog is RestockVintage)
I’m not sure if these are paper cutouts, but if they are, then that is a very simple way to adorn a mantel. You could make these from projections of classic silhouettes. Simple mirror, simple black and white color palette, some glitter and you are good to go. (From Doreen Cagno from Hymnes and Versus)
This one has the fabric strips as the garland and the idea of it — instead of garland — is great and I might steal it. OOh, with cute vintage fabric mixed with metallics? Done. (By Jana Roach)
Another very simple idea with a branch/mobile. The rest of the pieces look purchased, but the overall composition and color palette are cohesive and really well done. (By Alice Patterson)
There are a ton more that I love that are up (around 67 with ten days left to go), but what I loved about these were how simple and inexpensive they are for how great they look. What they all have in common are simple color palettes and really balanced composition.
Also Centsational Girl (Kate Riley) is setting the bar high:
Nice job, guys. And AGAIN, these aren’t necessarily the winners or even my favorites, just really good ideas that I wanted to share and give you people that are all scared to enter or too lazy to click a sneak peek into what the challenge is.
To read all the details on the challenge (aka what the five winners win, and HOW you win, deadlines (Dec 31st) etc.) click HERE.
And to enter or to view others and vote, click HERE. Oh and yes, in order to vote you have to “like” me on facebook. It’s just part of the promo contest policies. But it’s not that hard and you can always “unlike” me after you vote. No emails, nothing annoying, I swear.