Summer Mantel

Summer for us, as is for many people, is about the beach. Our destination is always Long Beach Island, NJ. Not to be confused with the “Jersey Shore”, it is a peaceful, fun and family oriented place. I originally set out to do a patriotic / Americana theme, but I kept ending up back at the beach.

Yeah, I know, the lamp shade is totally crooked.

My starting point was to bring back my old barn door I have used in the past. However, this time, I turned it around. The side that I usually use is more of a brown, but this side is a beautiful beachy gray that made me think of old boardwalks.

Pretty much everything I used we had around. When digging for some zinc mason jar caps, I found these mason jar lids and they made me think of sea glass.

When we are at the beach we study the tide charts to know when it is low tide so that we can hunt for sea glass. It is a family tradition that I love.

We had the piece of heavy rope, which has a nautical feel, that I draped across the top. I glued or tied shells and the mason jar lids to pieces of twine and tied them to the heavy rope instead of doing a traditional wreath.

I am not sure what those branchy things are but felt they had a beachy feel as well. I had some additional shells and a blue bottle that I added as well.

Summer is a time of lingering, lighting candles and relaxing. I added a few candles between the blue mason jars. The mason jars also remind me of sea glass, plus I have such a love for them I thought they brought a nice bit of color.