Mantel Loving

At our house, we have two living room areas. What happened was at one point in time, someone turned the one car garage into an additional living area. With that being said-- its hard to really have a lay out that is functional when you have two areas/rooms that essentially serve the same purpose.

Remember, here when we gave the first look before we did any work... See the first room is what I call the den and then the room down to the left is the living room.

Then after we got the floors redone (viewing the den from the side door)... Notice Pawpaw in the front door. :)

So here has been my dilemma for the past couple of weeks-- what do we put in the den? In the living room, we have our sectional and TV so we really do the majority of activity in there....

 ... and the den has been wasted space. I hate to admit that, but it has! Right now, it has the china cabinet that belonged to my Dad's grandmother, an entryway table and a rocking chair. Just terrible, wasted space! So I have been brainstorming over the last couple of weeks what to do with it. This is the room you walk in first so I really wanted to do something really nice, something that is pretty, but at the same time functional.

So I began to think about my mom's living room and what is the first thing that I notice when I walk in... for me, it is the fireplace. In my head, I'm thinking "You don't have a fireplace-- next option." But then it hit me... Just because I don't have a fireplace doesn't mean that I can't have a mantel.

Like here...

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Or here...

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And the mantel could be the focal point of our empty den! So I added a few more things to my ongoing to-do list for the Den!

Den:

1. Buy curtain rod and curtains
2. Find a entry way table that can double as a storage unit
3. Organize coat closet (Bottom)
4. Move the couch and love seat
5. Hang pictures or more artwork
6. Make or buy a cute wreath or door hanger for the front door
7. Sand and refinish rocking chair
8. Reupholster rocking chair
9. Replace closet door
10. Paint front door. (Already have the paint!)
11. Buy mantel
12. Paint and install mantel

Well, guess what..??? We already found a mantel that will work perfectly! We bought one at the Bucksville Mercantile in McCalla and it is going to be perfect! We need to go a little fixing here and there on it but I really think it is going to work out great!

Here she is...

Forgive me for it not being the best quality picture but it was late when I remembered to post it! We'll see how she does! Wish us luck!