Mantle Wars
Most husbands and wives fight over the toilet paper roll. Is it over or under? I mean aren’t laundry, dishes and taking out the trash much bigger issues than whether a roll of toilet paper is hung correctly?!? I’d much rather switch all of those out in our home than put up clothes. All day, every day. I swear all hubbies and kiddos of the world have conspired and plotted to dirty five outfits a day, each, to see how behind we can get. Am I right?!? Let’s see how high we can step over the dirty laundry pile.
While I’ve honestly never truly understood the “over or under” battle, we have our fair share of household discrepancies. Moving our hamper into every corner of our bedroom and bathroom still haven’t inspired Mark to get the clothes INTO the basket. There they sit, 18″ from the hamper. Jokes aside, I honestly can’t complain. Mark does a huge share of the housework and project load around our home.
One issue though that is no joke in our house is the living room mantle… TV or no TV? That is the question.
You see, Mark likes it this way…
But I think it would look quite amazing over here…
Move the ottomans, and the amazing and gorgeous table, take down the mirror, hang the TV and add a beautiful new storage console for all of the television domeflochies (clearly not a word, spellcheck found nothing). Mark is still not convinced. I was however able to sweet talk him into taking it down for one weekend. Two days of getting my way.
Last weekend we had a photography shoot at our home (more on that exciting-ness coming soon!). As in our entire home was photographed. With the exception of closets, bathrooms and the basement, every bit of it had to be perfect. Well scratch that. Perfect and lived in. Sounds so easy and care-free right?!? Lived in… I’ve determined that styling a home means- clean your house, put away all of the things you actually use, then get out the nice stuff that your kiddos might soil or break and pretend like you use it every day. Buy fresh flowers and fruit like a farmer’s market just set up shop in your home and voila! A beautifully styled home.
Besides the million projects to start and complete by last weekend, I also wanted the TV down for the shoot. Not quite sure that I’ve ever seen a big ol’ flatscreen front and center in any of my favorite home mags. After the initial “seriously? bleh. argh.”, he said “sure babe.” (insert emoji with gritted teeth). So for two days I got my way.
But wait, what on earth am I going to put in it’s place? It has to be amazing. And huge. And a showstopper. So I contacted my friend Meredith Christenberry with The Christenberry Collection in Columbia, SC to help me out. I wanted to borrow a print for the shoot and boy did she make that happen! She got me in touch with the super amazingly sweet and helpful Linda at Huff Harrington in Atlanta. And a big huge THANK YOU to Huff Harrington for the borrow!
Here’s my visit to their gallery AND a sneak peek at our “new” living room…
Seriously the most charming little gallery ever!
Drumroll please… Here’s what I chose and a sneak peek at our “new” living room!
So CAST YOUR VOTE… are you Team Mark or Team Brittany?
XOXO, Brittany Hayes
I’ll always be Team Brittany!! I love love love your home!! If I could start from scratch I would love mine to be as bright, airy and classy as yours!! I hope you’re doing well! Hugs!
You’re too too sweet Ginelle!! I appreciate it so very much! Hope your beautiful family and sweet baby boy are doing wonderful!
Team Britt!! First time commenter….love your style!
Yay thank you!!! Love that you took time to comment! Thanks so much! XOXO
Love love love everything you do so you win!!!! ?
Awe well thank you so much!
Looks amazing! Did the windows ever cause a glare when watching TV? We have lots of tall windows and not sure how to cover them, to avoid the glare on the TV.
Yes, we had a UV film applied. It is a very light one so you can’t tell from looking at them but it definitely helps! Thanks for reading!
First, I love the playfulness of your home. I’ve already stolen a couple of ideas! The one thing that I just can’t get over is not the fact that you have a large TV hanging over your mantle because I understand reality BUT, the tv you do have doesn’t fit witching the trim you have hanging over the mantle and I cannot get past that. I would have to get a smaller tv- one that fit and didn’t lop over the sides of the trim!! The art is great! Love that gallery!
“Within”. Not witching!
Team Brittany all the way!! The tv with console will look much better to the side! ?
I think I’m team Mark! Would you need to rearrange your sectional and beautiful Joss and Main arm chairs to get the view of the TV in the new spot? Although I’m sure you could pull off that rearrange perfectly.
I love your style and home but I have to choose option C, LOL. I love the table and ottoman arrangement but I understand not wanting to “see” the TV all the time. I think you should get your hubby to build some beautiful contraption that when closed over TV there is the look of Art that you desire. It’s a Win Win!!
Sorry Mark, team Brittany all the way, its such a gorgeous firplace, better to show case it with some gorgeous art work & pop your tv on something practical to store all of the “domeflochies”. Your home is simply stunning, thank for sharing !!!
While the art does look better (magazine perfect), your room is so over-the-top fantastic that I don’t think the tv over the mantle takes away too much. If it makes hubby happy, seems to be the best viewing spot, than I say that gorgeous room can pull it off.
We are redecorating and having this discussion…seems so many have it over the fireplace but my husband and I are opposite of what you guys say he says no over it and I wanted it there lol…but think we will do the media console and put it elsewhere. ….so I can actually style the mantle!
I have the sam delima! But- my question is….if the fireplace is the focal point and your furniture faces it, then how do you arrange furniture to face the TV?
I basically have the same layout as your home, so thanks for some great inspiration for furniture placement! I never wanted to have the tv mounted over the fireplace until I saw how you made it work in your space. Wouldn’t putting the tv on the side wall compromise the traffic flow into the room? That area in my home has a lot of traffic flow —and if the TV were there, people would be walking in front of it all the time. Maybe your layout is slightly different coming into the room- but something to consider.