A Romantic Summer Mantel – Seasonal Simplicity

Simple Romantic Summer Mantel - Seasonal Simplicity | Vinyet Etc

Hey guys, I’m excited to be back again this week for another Seasonal Simplicity, summer series. My creative friends and I are talking all about summer mantels and vignettes! Whoop! I’m excited! You’d think with a name like, Vinyet I’d be talking all about vignettes, well I kind of am, a little romantic vignette that happens to be on our porch’s mantel. 😉 Last week we all shared our summer wreaths (on the mantel) – let me just say, the wreath awesomeness was strong last week, they were all so unique and inspiring, have you checked them out yet? Thank you again, Krista, (The Happy Housie), this series has been the extra little push I’ve needed to get our place summer ready AND all the yummy inspiration has been the cherry on top!

Our Mantel

I am feeling all warm and fuzzy inside lately guys and it’s really evolving into a romantic summer porch… and, I don’t hate it! I’m actually really loving how sweet and cozy everything is! Our antique mantel(s) were found on a road trip Bud and I were on, visiting family in Leominster, Massachusetts – two of these beauties were hiding at the very back of a warehouse-like antique mall, for a complete steal I might add (compared to what we would pay here in Ontario, Canada) – I was SO thankful we had our trailer with us. We’ve restored one and painted it for our master bedroom (I still haven’t written that reveal post) and this one, I wanted for our front porch – we’ve left this one chippy, just like it was when we found it. We both fell for how simple this mantel is, it adds just a perfect amount of “je ne sais quoi”.

Flowered Wreath

While I was bringing my coffee out to enjoy on the porch one morning, I noticed that our flowered romantic wreath fell off of the wall during the evening – bummer!!! But wait a minute… have you ever heard of a happy accidents? Well, I kind of like how it looks sitting on the mantel, leaning against the wall. This was for sure a happy accident in my books!

Ladder over mantel – why not?

When I was working on this space, I originally thought that I wanted dried flowers hanging from a ladder that is suspended over top of our mantel, once the flowered wreath was in place, I felt like it was too much of a good thing, too many flowers, gasp, I know – no such thing! 😉 You never know… maybe stringing all the flowers will happen yet, it’s still early in the season so… Then why the ladder? I mean it needs a “reason” to be there, right? (I mean other than it looks cool) – Enter twinkle lights – and branches? Sure, why not? I simply love the way it looks. We recently had some trees that needed to be taken down (they were dangerously leaning towards our home and rotten on the inside – seriously don’t know how they stayed up), I thought the emerging green leaves of Spring were the perfect colour and decided to harvest some – yet another happy accident.

Cake stands aren’t just for cakes any more

When I realized the wreath was going to sit on top of the mantel – I had to rethink the plan I had for the look and feel of our vignette. I dug into my stash (aka – rooting around in my hoard) and grabbed some of the things that inspired me… a galvanized cake stand (why not?) and some moss to start with. I also knew I wanted to use the gorgeous green votive candles I received from my friends over at Afloral. And finally, some pretty pink striped ribbon from my Mother’s day flowers, then I played! You may have seen some of the behind the scenes if you follow along on Instagram. One of the bonuses about having the candles on the stand is the fact I can move it to where ever I’d like it. 🙂

Vintage vibe

Candles add that special flicker and such a soft light… instant ambiance!

You may have noticed that I’m completely, head over heels into vintage! If you are too, I’d love to tell you about our FB group, Creative Vintage Darlings. This is a community of fellow vintage lovers, in all stages of collecting. Some love rustic, and some MCM lovers but we all have one common denominator, we all enjoy the hunt AND if you are looking for someone to talk you off of the ledge of; to buy or not to buy, we aren’t your group! HAHA – we could easily name ourselves, Creative Vintage Enablers! 😉 I hope you’ll join us there. xo

Thank you once again for coming here for a little visit, I so appreciate your time! I’m beyond happy to share with you all of the inspiration and the creativity below, it really does feed my soul. I hope you love it as much as I do! xo