Decorating a Late Summer Mantel

It is always hard for me to decide how to decorate in the late summer.  It is too early for fall decorations but I don’t want to be too springy either.  This year I just decided to do a simple late summer mantel with blue and cream as the colors with some items that remind me of summer.

I have seen several book page wreaths on Pinterest and I really liked how they look and the fact that they are very inexpensive to make.  Cheap, DIY decorations are the best!  I wanted to try to make a Dahlia book page wreath for a while and this was the perfect mantle to try it for.  I know, you are asking what does a book page wreath have to do with summer?  Well I don’t know about you, but I love to read.  I think reading a book at the beach or laying in a hammock sounds like the perfect summer day.    Plus it looks like a Dahlia flower and those bloom in late summer!

Onto some other things that remind me of summer….fans!  I found this vintage fan at a great antique shop.  This place was a hoarder’s dream!  There were literally piles upon piles of “junk”.  We could not believe it when we walked in, it was like walking onto a set at a TV show.  We were there with some friends and we could not stop laughing because it was just so unbelievable.  The garage was even worse!  There were literally rows carved out of stuff piled above your head…we were afraid it was going to all come crashing down on us.  The craziest thing though was that if you asked the owner if he had something, he knew exactly where to find it.  After going to many antique shops, this is still my favorite one!  🙂

Clothespins are another reminder of summer.  Growing up, I remember going to my Grandma’s house and watching her hang clothes out on the line in the summer.  I love the simplicity of the clothespins in the mason jar.

The bottle was a DIY project gone wrong, but I like how it turned out.  This used to be a burgundy color but I wanted to paint it white to have it resemble Ironstone.

Not sure what happened exactly with the bottle but when Mr. Wonderful went to put the clear coat on it, the paint started to crinkle up immediately.  He thinks it was a timing issue with the paint.  You have to re-coat within an hour or wait 48 hours, we may or may not have been outside of the 1 hour window. 🙂  Anyway, after looking at it closer, it reminded me of coral.  So I thought it would fit in great to the summer theme.  As you can see from the vase with the cotton stems, painting ceramic can turn out great!

The cool lighthouse looking lantern came from Hobby Lobby.  I think that one is pretty obvious…lighthouse…ocean…summer.  Or maybe that is just how my mind thinks…lol.

Of course my pillows have to match the decor as well.  The tan and butterfly pillows are from Hobby Lobby.  The blue and white fabric came from Fabric.com.  

The white linen pillow covers are from Ikea.  The lumbar pillow cover fabric came from Walmart.  I make a lot of my pillow covers, I used to do an envelope pillow cover but now make an easy zippered pillow cover.  Check out the tutorial if you want to learn how to make some for yourself.

I hope you got some ideas to inspire you to decorate for late summer as well.  So what are some things that remind you of summer?

Kimberly