Mantel and Living Room

January is always a great time to do something new in the living room!

Once all the Christmas decorations and wrappings

are put away, and the room is cleaned,

I seem to want to move the furniture around!

With a new couch in the family room,

the old one moved in here right before the holidays.

I didn't have any time to play with arrangements then,

so now was my chance!

For Christmas, I put the couch facing the fireplace,

with the back facing the entry. This was so the Christmas tree

could still be in the window.

 It worked okay, but it really closed off the living room,

so I tried a new spot after the holidays.

I moved it under the front window and started moving

around the rest of the furniture that I was determined

would stay.

It was a little better, but still feeling pretty crowded,

and the two wing chairs were giving it that closed-off feeling again.

I knew something was going to have to go, whether I liked it or not!

As soon as I moved the table out of the corner by the bookcase,

the room made sense again!

It opened up and felt more spacious.

(I moved the table to the family room, which meant

something had to go in there, too, but that's another story!)

Once I had the furniture figured out, I was able to move on to the mantle,

which is where I usually like to start!

 I loved this new chalkboard so much, I brought it out again!

 This time, I paired it with the usual white pitchers,

as well as silver candlesticks and an ivy wreath.

The final product makes me happy!