While there is almost nothing I would change about our house, decorating it has been a far more daunting task then I ever could have imagined. It's wonderful to have high ceilings and large rooms and all that but making it feel homey and not so cavernous is like a part time job (maybe if it was a full time job, my empty living and dining rooms wouldn't constantly taunt me?) I am certainly not trying to fill every little corner with something...generally I like things to be cleaner looking and yes, sometimes a little "different".
...And hence today's post! Our mantle is the focal point of our family room where we spend 90% of our time. It is in every sense of the word the "center" of our home...it is also the bain of my existence when it comes to decorating! I've slowly been making decision about what to display on the mantle, choosing to keep it empty while I found the "right" stuff. We started with a rustic looking acanthus leaf mirror that I fell in love with as soon as I saw it. This past summer I added the tall lanterns on either end. I like that they balance out the 2 ends of the long mantle and their shiny chrome finish balances the heavy, distressed look of the mirror. Until this weekend it looked like this:
I always thought it looked a little blah...just a mile of white space between those 2 lanterns. So I kept my eye out for something that could work in the middle. Not a pair...I wanted 1 thing that could stand on it's own right in the middle and if possible that added some color. Randomly surfing the Z Gallerie site, this guy caught my eye:
OK...now I realize putting a big ceramic koi fish on your mantle is random to say the least...I get that. But I don't know...he's kinda cool I think. He's a nice size, quirky and, you can't deny, a conversation starter! And as of this past Sunday, he's mine! Here's how he looks up there:
But of course, now I'm second guessing myself. Neil thinks he looks like a ridiclous yard sale find and my brother has been anti-koi since I showed him the link on Z Gallerie's site. Damn him...now he's inside my head!
So I ask you...is the fish ridiculous? Did it look better without him? And PLEASE what would look better there? Picture frames don't work. They get completely lost on the big mantle. It's quite deep (almost 12") so I can put something pretty substantial up there. Leave your comment, I need all the help I can get!
Move the fish to one side or the other. Don't center it.
Anonymous said...
March 3, 2008 at 8:21 PM
I agree with the above poster in that you should move the Koi. However I think you should move it a little more than to one side- perhaps, out of the room..and into a fishtank.. where other real fish could find a home inside his hollow, iridescent body.
Don't get me wrong, the Koi is definitely introducing some new colors to the palette of this room- which is a good thing. But its not really drawing from any existing colors in the room.. I see earthly tones and soft textures throughout this post, and then.. a bright, shiny fish.
Now I havent been a fan of this idea from the start- but looking at it, I think you're only shot of making this work with the room is by introducing some brighter colors somewhere. A great opportunity to do this (and a cheap one at that) would be playing with the colors of the candles adjacent to the fish. If you step back, and the entire mantle now looks like it belongs in a chinese food restaurant, I think you flush our friend Mr. Koi.
-H
xxHelderxx said...
March 3, 2008 at 8:41 PM