harvest mantel

Greetings loverlies!

Have I mentioned how much I love fall? LOVE! Particularly pumpkin picking, lattes, crunchy leaves, tall boots, strawflowers, autumn colors. I could go on and on. There’s just something in the air. And oh so much color to admire.

Right now I am finding inspiration at my local farmer’s market. Everything is so abundant and colorful. I decided why not just layer the mantel with all of this glorious natural color?

I started with this oil painting that I already owned. It establised the color scheme for the display. It was easy to layer on the natural beauty from there.

I’ve been collecting orchard baskets all summer. Green apples in this one.

Crab apples in the red one. Here’s a secret: the red basket is not filled with apples. It’s actually filled with tissue paper and just the top layer is apples.

Ornamental pepper plants always seem to be drawn to me this time of year. Or maybe I’m drawn to them. They’re so fun! They come in multiple colors from cream to orange to purple. I put a couple of these in my collection of yellow McCoy planters.

I didn’t have a third yellow McCoy so I improvised with the remaining pepper plant. I decided to just wrap it in brown paper.

And accented it with some leftover burlap.

I think the kraft brown goes well with the orchard baskets.

What else do we have? Ryan and I made this chalkboard a while back. We used a shabby old frame and some chalkboard paint. I wrote on it in lavendar similar to the sunset in the sunflower painting.

I bought the apple farm sign last year. I didn’t make it but wish I did!

But my most favorite part of the harvest mantel has got to be the mini pumpkin display! This was also the splurge. There are 21 live pumpkins. I selected each one individually. They’re in a wooden bowl on the vintage cheese box I brought home a few weeks ago. I threw in the industrial scoop for good measure. Hello there little guys!