A very holiday mantle

I have a love-hate relationship with our fireplace and mantle. I love that we have one, but I hate that it has these ugly half columns that break up the entire space and make it really hard to decorate. I suggested to Zac that we try to remove them, using the "how hard can it really be?" argument. He didn't fall for it - maybe it was the idea of smashing bricks and replacing dry wall that didn't appeal to him.

So... I took on the challenge of decorating and disguising. Here are before pictures of the mantle.

Believe it or not, this room has flat paint, so I'm not sure why it has crazy flash bounces on the walls. Oh, and it's since much cleaner than in these pictures.

See what I mean about the columns?

I'm going to skip a bunch of steps and just show you our finished holiday mantle. I finished some of our permanent, all year round additions just before Christmas, so I'll give you more details on those once we take down the holiday decorations and make it "normal" again. 

But in the meantime... it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We still need to get a stocking for Derby! The bride and groom English Carolers were a present from my mom last Christmas. The mirror and N were DIY projects that I'll tell you about later (they're part of the permanent collection. Like our mantle is a museum). Oh - I've also since watered the poinsettas and they're slowly coming back to life!

I'd love to see your holiday decorations too. How long do you leave them up? These bad boys will find themselves living in a box by December 27 at the latest. As soon as Christmas is over they start to drive me crazy - and funny enough, both my mother and my mother-in-law do the exact same thing! My co-worker who leaves her tree up until Easter is a whole different story...