No Mantle? No Problem!

This bookcase in the middle of my living room wall has never been used for books.  It's sort of the visual center of the room--the other three walls all have doorways, and this is the only purely decorative wall.  I love books, but didn't really think my book collection was all that visually stimulating (at least from the outside), so I've always had various arrangements of photos and knick-nacks. 

Somehow or other, I'd never really done much as far as decorating it seasonally is concerned.  This summer I'd had a couple paper lanterns in it (thus the couple of visually-unbalanced shelves--I put away the lanterns but hadn't rearranged things yet), but that was about as far as I'd gone.  Over the past couple weeks as I was blog-hopping, I'd gotten a bit jealous of all the people with the wonderful fall mantle arrangements.  I live in a rather hot area, and mantles aren't exactly de rigeur in houses around here!  Then I happened upon this post, which reminded me that just because one doesn't have a mantle, it doesn't mean one can't decorate as though one had a mantle. 

So, I took my nondescript bookcase arrangement and created four different small fall mantles!  For the top one, I got rid of the glass-and-metal candle holder and substituted in a raven garden ornament (clearance last year at Target) and two ink well candle holders (clearance at Anthropologie).  The second shelf got three Goodwill wood-look ceramic candle holders with clearanced Target candles and a grapevine pumpkin from Target's dollar spot. 

I moved my collection of violin-playing angels to the bottom shelf, where they mix nicely with some branches that fell out of my tree in our last big storm.  The next-to-bottom shelf has quite a mix of items!  In the middle is a drippy brown pillar candle which I nestled in a green glass compote amongst a bunch of acorns and small pine cones.  More acorns are underneath, mixed with some "cranberry" vase filler I also used elsewhere in the room.  On the right, my miniature violin sits on a pedestal made from moss-covered foam.  I love the way the pedestal makes it look "important" rather than just "toy-like."  On the left, I used some terracotta pot saucers to support a red glass cup and saucer and a Ukranian egg I got in Brazil.  (There are lots of people of European ancestry in southern Brazil.)  I'm thinking I may sponge-paint the saucers with shades of green, brown and gray to make them blend a bit better, but overall, I'm pleased!