DIY Summer Mantel Makeover

Here in the Pacific Northwest, it doesn’t feel like summer until August.  Nevertheless, it’s time to change my spring mantel arrangement into something a little more summery.

One of the things I love about summer is the return of the bees.  I love to watch them on my flowers and listen to them buzzing around my herb garden.  If I wasn’t deathly allergic to their stings, I’d be a beekeeper.  Even so, I’m considering it.  What’s a near-death experience when you can harvest fresh honey from your own backyard apiary?

When it came time to decorate my fireplace mantel for the summer, I thought a bee theme would be fun (not to mention less dangerous than building a hive in my backyard).   The only thing I own that works for a grouping like this is an antique honey jar I bought a few years ago from a little farm stand out in the country.

Antique honey jar

If you remember from my spring mantel makeover, my goal is to decorate my mantel without spending any money (okay, so maybe a little money).  Mostly, I look around for things I already own or can make myself.   Well, one little honey jar doesn’t make for a very interesting summer-themed mantel, so I had some work to do.

First, I created some bee art on a piece of 5×7 canvas I already had.  I printed a bumblebee line drawing from this website onto parchment-style paper, tore the edges, and modge-podged it onto the canvas using a homemade mixture of equal parts Elmer’s glue and water.

Bee art in the making

I painted the edges with black acrylic paint, let that dry, and then dabbled over it with gold.  I wouldn’t normally do this kind of finish, but the canvas sits back in the shadows and the gold helped soften the edges.  I finished it with a little raffia bow.

Bee “art”

As you can see from the photo, I also found a couple of gold coffee mugs to use as vases for the bright blue flowers I picked from my yard.  The wire garland of amber-colored beads was a thrift-store find.  I love it.

Honey beads

I added some candles and a giant letter Z from the clearance section of my local craft store.  It’s supposed to represent “Bzzzz” but it would probably work better if I had a giant letter B.  Oh well.

Still, the mantle needed a little extra something, so I decided to make a honey sign, like something you might see at a farm stand.  I rummaged up a piece of scrap wood from the garage and painted it up.  I wanted it to look rustic and weathered, so I didn’t worry that the board was a little dirty and rough.  All the better!  Still, it needed something so I wrapped it in a bit of leftover chicken wire from the garage (instead of decorating mantels, I should probably clean my garage).  I love that chicken wire has a honeycomb pattern.  Perfect.

The many uses for chicken wire

It turned out cute, although a little more “country” than I was going for.  I might put a glaze over it to tone it down a bit, but then again, maybe I won’t.  Maybe I’ll just stick more stuff in front of it…

Finally, I arranged everything this way:

Arrangement #1

But that was a little too balanced, so then I arranged it this way:

Alas, I still hate my fireplace surround.

Then I moved it back the other way.  I can’t decide which way I like it better.  Furthermore, I think the entire thing turned out a little too “cute” for me, but it is kind of casual which I like for the summer.  I’ll probably tinker with it some more.  I will sit here in my chair and stare at it and think of ways to make it less cute and more artsy instead of cleaning my garage like I should.  That’s probably a really good use of my time.

So there you have it!  My summer mantel on a budget.  What do you think?  Is it too cutesy, or just right?