Rustic Mantle Backdrops

Inspiration is rarely a problem for me.  In fact, my problem is usually having too much inspiration and not knowing when to quit.  That wasn’t the case last week.  I started out with what I thought was a great idea.  I have these wonderful antique tongue and groove boards that I always turn into coat racks, but I felt like doing something different with some of them.  I thought I’d connect several together and turn them into barn door style signs, in a few different colors.  I ended up making 3 of them, thinking I’d really be cranking out some great signs.I cut the boards, connected them together, painted and distressed them, and then looked, and looked, and looked at the darn things for 2 days, but could not decide what kind of image or words to put on them for the life of me.   The longer I thought about it, the less inspired I became.I was getting seriously annoyed, because the boards looked so darn pretty all connected together.

Then it occurred to me…maybe I shouldn’t do anything with them.  I realized, that as much as I love making signs, these connected planks might make a really pretty backdrop for vignettes on a fireplace mantel or shelf.

I grabbed some of my favorite things to see if the idea was a good one.

I tried ironstone with an old book page bow bunting…and loved it.  That gorgeous mint green on the old wood really provided the perfect backdrop for the neutral tones in the ironstone and paper.

Admittedly, old apothecary bottles look pretty anywhere, but I think the distressed white backdrop makes them an eye-catching focal point.

I tried old clay pots…and again, loved the way the pots looked in front of it.

Bird nests and pretty little eggs looked right at home in front of it.

Then I used it as a backdrop for an old clock and a tattered book stack…and of course, I loved it even more.  So my lack of inspiration ended up being very inspirational after all!

These make beautiful mantle backdrops, and you can switch out the props in front to suit your mood or the season.

You can create your own dictionary page banner, like those shown in theses photos with the free printables here.