Christmas Bears on the Mantel

I have one of the homeliest fireplaces ever seen in a tract house. The wall height on the left side is about nine feet, and the right side angles up to about twelve feet. One of the reasons I started following blogs was because I had googled "How do you decorate a corner fireplace?".  That's where I found Thrifty Decor Chic.  I loved what she had done with her mantle,  The moldings that had been added were definitely cute.  Well all these years later I still have an ugly fireplace and mantle,  I just have not gotten around to figuring out what to do with it,  but I try to work with it.

Not a pretty sight is it?  I really would rather have a regular fireplace,  I had thought about painting it black and embellishing it with wood trims,  but there really isn't anywhere on the sides to add any tiling or wood trims.

 

The only thing I like about this corner fireplace is the depth when it comes to holiday decorating.  It is tricky to figure out a height and a width to add any wood trim on the walls because of the awkward disparity in the ceiling above either side of the mantle. This year I had Home depot cut a handy panel into two pieces for me and attached them above the mantle.  I then took apart an old fence section, trimmed and cut the pieces in half then glued them to the handy panel pieces.   Now I have the backdrop for decorating a rustic little vignette with The Three Bears!

The house was made by the Amish south of where I live (I bought it at Goodwill),  the low fence in front of the house was found at a garage sale a few years ago.  The bears were found at the Volunteers of America store nearby,  the taller green tree's came from Marc's several years ago.

The snowflakes came from the VOA too.

Baby bear behind the house is sitting on a small wooden box from Goodwill.

The wood fence sections came from a fence a neighbor had torn done.  He cut the fence into sections about fifteen inched wide and tied them into bundles for the trash.  I took one of the bundles home in the trunk of my car.

Papa bear is carrying a small tree and holding a big bag of presents.

Mama bear has packages in one arm, and a large star ornament held by a string held in the other paw.

Baby bear is holding a toy train up with one paw, and packages in the other paw.

I have added a picture of last years Christmas mantle so you can see the difference that the fence boards have made to the overall look of the mantle.

Last years (2012) Christmas mantle.

Have a great day!  Thrift on ladies, thrift on!!

Linking to:

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