To ask you to help me decorate my mantelpiece?

[CoffeeMilkNoSugar]

Can you give me any useful tips? What would you put on it if you were me? I am planning to paint all walls in the room a muted, olivey greenish colour sometime soon.

Budget... around a 100 quid, but of course preferably less.

Please help and excuse the dreadful clutter. I hope to be rid of it soon.

It's a working fire, and it's always going in the winter (so gets filthy very quickly!), with buckets of coal and logs and such... hard to keep the hearth pretty. I also have a huge great big massive UNSIGHTLY UGLY EYESORE of a fireguard because my 3 year old son cannot possibly be trusted not to kill himself, so the eyesore will have to stay until he's older and reasonable.

Sadly, no other available wall space :( It's kind of a double-room, as in two rooms connected with an archway, and the other walls contain doors and windows etc.

So far I think I'll go for these hurricane lamps I've linked to earlier, but not sure - and then I'll look for a pretty mantel clock... and then hopefully it'll stop being so damn ugly :(

(Keep these lovely tips coming though, ladies! ;) )

Maybe to get you over the Christmas period you get just put a garland on the mantel. I make my own and it's not hard or expensive. I like the lanterns, put a couple of nice big pillars in them and they will look fab.

Alright, I bought the lanterns :) Where would I look for a lovely mantel clock? Any ideas?

Here's my mantlepiece. I think they look better if not too symmetrical.

Those lanterns are lovely.

Op!!!! Paint that fire place, no need to sand even without chalk paint, I know I have done it myself it's not a high traffic area. But you need to paint it. The hardest part will be choosing paint, for that size go for tester pots.. Get some color swatches... Tester pot. No dust cloth a little brush and go.
You will be amazed and it will empower you to carry on. Ten minutes and it will be done, dries super fast espy if you light fire may need two or even three coats and will cost you a few pounds.

The white pot you got from ikea I spy... Put a plant in it, I got the ikea aloe vera for mine and its on my painted in five minutes fire place and looks lovely.
You don't need to wait till spring

Paint the tiles.
Any colour it doesn't matter that it gets sooty! It will look a million times better with... A little soot. Look at Cameron House... Amazing room, all cream with soot.

Tile paint, another miracle worker. I had 80s hideous orange tiles, with brown, heavy, draining.. One pot of tile paint 13 quid to a pale pale blue, beautiful!! Serene... Again in the few moments.

The change and the power is in your hand.. Get your head round the fact that fire place can be done cheaply and in the time it takes to make tea. Paint the pine shelves as well. Paint all dark pine it will be a soul uplifting reevaluation.

BTW sorry to go on, but you can transform it in half an hour for twenty quid. It's that simple, no where near hundred quid is needed.
I got a fake woodburner, fireplace, painted it, etc for under 50

If you paint that wall dark, the TV will disappear into the wall and you'll only really notice it when it's on

Alright, I shall buy some paint! :)

Not sure about the bookcase though. it's not a big house at all, and there isn't much natural light...

I found this video (Facebook link to b&q's fb page) quite helpful for styling my mantle and shelves etc www.facebook.com/bandq/videos/1593557200655868/

Op I would definitely paint it. We did ours a couple of weeks ago and it looks so much better.

We just painted the wood with Dulux Eggshell paint for wood or metal. It cost £25 and we still have 90% of it left, even after 3 coats...so it could be done much more cheaply!

I had a horrible plastic mantle, which previous owners had tried to paint in a wood effect.

I spray painted it with dark silver car paint, with a couple of undercoats of grey emulsion. It looks pretty amazing IMO

How about painting the fireplace and bookcase in a light grey? It will go well with olive-y green walls, and won't look as stark as white.

When you decorate a mantelpiece, try not to go too symmetrical. Group things in 3s (odd numbers of items in arrangements always looks better) and go for different heights to add interest.

Have a look at interior design blogs such as Swoonworthy, Apartment Therapy, Mad About The House, etc. Also use the search term 'styling a mantelpiece' rather than 'decorating' as decorating will probably bring up decorating for christmas type pictures. You want to know how to style it (that's the word interior designers use).

If you read lots of design blogs, you'll start picking up tips and style trends and eventually become more confident.

Have fun!

I have a very similar mantel OP. Thanks for starting this thread. Some great ideas .

I have a small lamp at either end of my mantelpiece, a favourite photo in a nice frame, tresured ornaments, a candle, and some other nik naks. The lamps make it really cosy with the low wattage bulbs. I like to have things that mean something to me, not just for the look or design of it.

Mine was white shiny plastic, small less than five pounds tubs of matt pale grey chalk paint on mine.

Buy tester pots. Small room any dark wood paint it light colour.

Battery operated flame candles, lights for fun, two for ten pounds, the fake flame flickers but also throws off a flame coloured glow on wall behind.

Out of interest, those of you that have painted yours, did you take it off to do it? Or did you paint it in situ?

We took ours off to paint it, didn't fancy trying to be careful round the edges!

Out of interest, those of you that have painted yours, did you take it off to do it? Or did you paint it in situ? I took mine off the wall as I was having a new hearth and back panel. I sanded it down and used some floor varnish that I had left over, needed a good few coats but I'm really pleased with how it turned out. If you are keeping the hearth and back panel I wouldn't bother taking it off, just masking tape the surrounding.

That was for @naymechaynger

I left mine in situ and used masking tape (apart from the bits where I could slide a post it note in!)

Thanks all - I think I will bite the bullet and take it off. Might be easier in the long run!