Do you have an area in your home that is guaranteed to change with the seasons? If I’m honest, nearly every area in our home is constantly changing, but the fireplace mantle is a sure space that everyone can spruce up for any season. Most often, this area is the focal point of the room it resides in. For that reason, it is always fun to make a statement with it. For Spring, I decided to do a unique layered look on mine.

Nothing says Spring like florals. I am a huge lover of vintage items, so my goal this year was to incorporate vintage floral prints into my decor. You can find these cheap at thrift stores. Every print I used cost less than $3. If you don’t shop thrift stores, you are missing out! My number one advice for decorating on a budget is to shop your local thrift stores.

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I randomly bought these prints as I saw them throughout the year. When I got ready to hang them together, I felt like they needed to blend a little better. I decided to paint the three wooden frames gold to match the others. Trust your instincts when decorating. I took a poll, and the vote was to leave the frames wooden. However, I felt they would look better gold for this project. Because I like contrast, I decided to go with Pure Gold instead of Metallic Gold. I used Rust-oleum Universal Pure Gold spray paint. This is great for interior/exterior surfaces including metal, wood, plastic, wicker and aluminum.

Now it was time to hang them! My recommendation for creating a gallery wall is to lay everything you want to use out on the floor to get a visual of how it will look on the wall. Remember to be flexible once you get started. As you can tell from the first picture, I didn’t know I was going to layer the prints until after I got started. It just seemed nothing was flowing like I wanted. I hung the largest painting in the center and then played around with the others. I knew I wanted to do something unique, so I was happy when the idea to layer them popped into my head! I put a nail in the wall where the top prints were to hang. Then, I tied some old wire I had on hand to the staples on the back of the frames. I knew if I could get the wire long enough, I could manipulate it to hang on the wall like I needed. It worked great!

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Once those were hung, I found an oval floral print that I wasn’t planning to use and propped it up at the bottom to create an interest to the eye. This unexpected point in the gallery wall gave it just the right amount of uniqueness that I was looking for. Always remember to use different shapes and textures when decorating. For the perfect finished look, I used a lot of old mixed with new terra cotta pots. They filled in the gaps on my mantle well. Because the prints had flowers on them, it was not necessary for me to add flowers to the pots. To keep a good flow to the eye, I arranged the pots to go upward where the frames were going downward.