People renovate their homes for many reasons, but one way to update the look and feel of a room is to simply redecorate. The living room is a great place to start when updating a home and here are 3 quick and inexpensive ways to change the look of your living room by updating the mantle above the fireplace.
Artwork
When changing the look of your living room, changing the artwork is a simple, but effective, way to change the entire feel of the room – and you don’t have to spend a lot of money to do so. Center a large piece of artwork above the mantle by either hanging it on the wall from behind or allowing the mantle to hold it up by angling it along the bottom of the piece. Once you’ve centered the picture, use 5 or 6 shorter items to place directly on the mantle. Items like candle filled vases, books and bookends, glass jars filled with pinecones, sand, or seashells, are always great ideas. Use different colors, textures, shapes and sizes to keep the eye interested in the scene.
Family Photo
A perfect place to show off your most recent family photo is above the mantle in the living room. Whether it was a posed photo or just a really fun vacation shot, blow it up, and put it on display above the fireplace. If one large photo doesn’t meet your needs, choose two or three contracting (or matching – that’s okay too) ones, get them developed onto canvas prints, and display them side-by-side.
While the photos are the largest part of the decoration in terms of size and focal point, you still want to add some additional items to your mantle so it’s not bare. Again, gather several, smaller items in different shapes, sizes, or textures and display them along the bottom of your photos. If you’re stuck for decorating ideas, choose items based on the season or an upcoming holiday. These items are smaller, and therefore they’re easily interchangeable, which means you can add and remove them quickly.
Television
Many families watch television in their living rooms and are replacing the big, bulky floor model televisions with the newer, fancier flat screen models. Choose a television that’s about the same width as your fireplace to avoid the television overwhelming the space or being dwarfed by the size of the fireplace. When you’re decorating your fireplace and mantle by adding a television, it can be tricky to hide the cords as well as the game boxes, DVDs players and cable boxes, but you should try to do so as best you can to avoid cluttering the look in the area. Depending upon how the space above your fireplace was built, you may be able to take advantage of the space behind the television to keep the cords away. Otherwise, gather your cords together in a neat bundle and bring them from behind the television toward the electrical outlet.
The living room is one of the most important rooms in the house as it is one of the first rooms your guests will see. With just a few, quick changes to the wall above the fireplace and mantle you can change the entire look of the room, and all without spending a lot of money.
