Felted Sweater Trees and a FREE Mantel

I thought I'd try my own take on the sweater tree craze that is going around the web. I had some felted sweaters laying around that needed to be used before the moths had their Thanksgiving meal in them. These turned out better than expected and went together in about an hour. The cones cost $5 for 5 and the sweaters I already had as well as the glitter glue.

The design added such sweet texture to the trees

simple star designs were added

It is hard to see but I brushed glitter over the entire criss-cross design

and added just dots on the small tree

I left some plain because simple is beautiful

Here you get a glimpse of the beautiful lines of this mantel. My neighbor was putting this out for free! It was a little rough and it wasn't deep enough but free can be modified.

When we bought our house the owner's son had carpeted the entire first floor in a beautiful white Berber. However......after having to clean the foyer carpet every 3 months, I was not in love with it. They had also put faux wood grain linoleum over the real wood steps. HUH? When I started to peel it up to refinish the steps, I figured might as well pull up a corner of the carpet and see what was lurking there. Gorgeous hardwoods! I don't understand people. Of course when we pulled up the entire carpet it became apparent why he had to carpet. He must have used a sprayer to paint the wood work and walls and did not protect the floors. We had a company refinish the floors because my visions of doing them myself quickly evaporated once I had sanded the steps. My knees and arms wouldn't have made it. They did an amazing job.

There also was a wall here that covered the fireplace. I knew there had to be a fireplace here because we have one in every single room, except here. So when the carpet came up, the hearth was exposed and I was ecstatic. I knew there was a fireplace! However, the excitement was short lived when we tore down the wall. The mantle was missing. The owner's son had taken the original mantle. Boo.

It has been sitting mantel-less for about 6 years. Not from lack of searching, maybe lack of funds and time. So when this mantle became available, I jumped at it and decided to make it work. 

I am so glad I did. We made it deeper by taking the sides off and adding a 1x6 and then we added a 1x3 to the top . It still needs some finessing but it is good for the holidays. I am just glad to have it ready for Christmas decorating. 

It is so deep that I am going to have fun loading it up with greens and boughs of holly....

Fa, La, La, La, Lovely

Always being renewed,

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