My "Mantel"

I am so excited about this shelf! Since I don't have a mantel, I have been wanting a nice big shelf to decorate and I finally have one! Don't mind the yucky brown wall, it was like that when we moved in and we are painting ASAP!



Here are some "before" pictures (the whole thing was green):




Yuck, right? But for $5 I was going to make this work!

So I started off by painting (my husband was nice enough to spray sealer on it for me :) and then I decided I wanted the shelf to have a "back" so I distressed some dictionary pages and modge podged them onto some plain brown packing paper. It was time-consuming since I am not the best distresser (that's a word, right?) but I think it was worth it! Here's what that looked like:



The original plan was to staple the paper "back" on, but we (my hubby :) ended up taping it instead - that way I can change it out super easy if I want! He also screwed it into the wall nice and sturdy for me!




Total project cost: $5!! I had everything on hand but the shelf! I am SO excited to have a
place to decorate now!

Linking up to the same fabulous blogs I always do :)