Decorating my Spring Mantel

Florida decided back on February 1 with her 80-something degree days that she was ready for spring, so I decided to play along and give my mantel a spring refresh.

Spring is all about fresh flowers, life in the garden, and animal life emerging from hibernation. I wanted a spring mantel that paid homage to that.

I wanted my chalkboard signage to reflect Scriptural assurances of spring. Scripture abounds with spring imagery. I wasn’t disappointed when I went hunting for a verse that would speak to the promises of spring. I found just what I was looking for in Zechariah 10:1:

“Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime; it is the Lord who sends the thunderstorms, He gives showers of rain to all people, and plants of the field to everyone.”

How great is that? I love having a reminder that every good springtime gift, the rain, flowers, food, comes from Him.

Out in my garage, I found an old galvanized watering can that I felt would be so sweet filled with flowers on my spring mantel. I don’t have my own cut-flower garden (it’s in the design plan, along with my vegetable garden!), so I went with faux florals from Target. We have a large magnolia tree right outside the windows beside the fireplace; I chose magnolia stems to bring the outside right on in.

I picked up that sweet faux boxwood plant in the most adorable creamy woven planter from TJ Maxx. It was just so spring and gave a daintiness to the mantel that complemented the roughness of the rusty galvanized tin. Fellow customers must have thought I was nuts because I spent an insane amount of time on the plant aisle. But I have no regrets. That plant was on the very bottom shelf and in the back, so it paid to obsessively (and some may say obnoxiously) check every single shelf.

Being that I’m an English teacher and particularly love old school readers and classic literature, I reached into my old book vault and pulled out a few spring-colored books. My absolute favorite book series growing up was Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. The fictional Anne always brimmed with hope and possibility. It felt appropriate to prominently display that book on my spring mantel in terms of the spring aesthetic.

In shopping at my mom’s house, I also came across an old sprinkler head. What is more spring than abundant irrigation? I thought the yellow color played off the rest of the colors in the Old Florida room really well.

These charming old Easter and Mother’s Day cards are my favorite part of the mantel. I found them at my favorite local shop, The White Elephant. I spent so much time inside her shop sifting through all the old cards that she forgot I was there. On that same shopping trip, I also picked up some old Christmas cards.

I always struggle to know what to do at the base of my fireplace. We always keep out a set of antique gold candlesticks because they are one of the very few things my husband has from his birth father. They just didn’t say spring. I dove into my vintage Golden Books collection and nabbed several that related to animals and farming and placed those inside an old picnic basket.

To give the bottom some height, I bought a really full a live Boston Fern. I potted it and set it on top of an old crate that I also strung with more Easter cards.

I’m so excited to actually try live houseplants inside. I’m even thinking of starting a series: #realhouseplantsofazaleacottage. We’ll see how long this bad boy makes it.

I’m already dreaming of what I’ll do for my summer mantle (don’t tell my husband). In the meantime, I plan to plant myself squarely on the and take in all this spring goodness for as long as I can in the coming months.