decor: mantel

I have a very large gold eagle in my living room.

And. It. Is. Outstanding.

This is the story of my fireplace. Or at least, the top half of my fireplace. The bottom half isn't ready for prime time yet.

I have an exposed brick wall and fireplace in my living room, which is one of the house's natural charms. It also was an intimidating decor challenge because it was a completely blank canvas. Here's a photo of the living room that I took during our home inspection:

That's a cubby to store wood right next to the fireplace opening, which makes the space awkward. It would've been nice to find an old, ornate frame mantel to surround the fireplace opening, but I didn't think it would look right with an unadorned cubby next to it. I eventually decided that a floating mantel above both the fireplace and the cubby would work best with the space, and I set my dad loose on the project. He worked some woodworking magic and came up with this beauty.

Once the mantel was up, the living room got its focal point.

And then the decor elements started coming together, after some trial and error. 

The antique mantel clock was an obvious choice. This was a Christmas present from my parents/Santa several years ago, and I love it. It requires a key to wind it up, and the tick-tock is like the heartbeat of the house. I can wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning, listen closely, and I know the clock will be ticking.

As for the frames, I found them at thrift stores and yard sales. The gold gives the space some glamour, and the pictures I have in them keeps everything young.

And the creme de la creme is my gold eagle.

And here's how the eagle came to be. I told you how Tony and I went to Ohio this fall to see Adrian and Gretchen. Adrian had recently quit his job to start his own business as an auctioneer, which is an inspiring, entrepreneurial story for another time. At any rate, before the auction, I was looking at the online catalog of what he was going to sell, and I saw a cast iron eagle. It's the kind of thing you see hanging over people's garages or barns when you drive through the heart of the country. And then I imagined how unexpected and modern and just fabulous it would be to paint the eagle gold. And to hang it over my fireplace. So I got this idea in my head, and I mentioned it to my parents, and it turns out, my dad just happened to have an extra fiberglass eagle laying around. (I know - what. But he did.)

So I brought it back to D.C. and DIY'd myself a gold eagle with some shiny Martha Stewart paint from Home Depot. And that is how an eagle landed in my living room.

Now, the wood burning fireplace is functional, but Tony and I decided that we aren't going to use it. We won't block it off, though, so the next owners can use it. So I've been playing around with what I can put in the fireplace and the cubby to utilize the space for extra storage and still look nice in the centerpiece of my home. And I'm still moving things around to see what looks best. I'll do another post when I have it figured out, though!