How to decorate a shelf for spring {our spring mantel}

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Today I am sharing how to decorate a shelf for spring. Last Christmas I added a new shelf to our family room and it was one of the easiest projects I have ever done. Who would have thought that a 30″ piece of wood would add so much character and provide fun styling opportunities for me! I recently re-arranged the furniture and added our chest of drawers from another room and placed it under this shelf.

Daffodils and boxwood, a pretty combination.

Before I go any further though, thank you so much for all your sweet comments, shares and pins on our “how to make curtains using burlap” tutorial from last Monday. Holy smokes, I think that is the most popular project yet on this blog! The burlap curtains that I am referencing are the ones below.

I decided to shop our house and give myself a $10 budget for this spring mantel. I am happy to say that the cost of the faux daffodils were my only expense, coming in well under $10.

I purchased the daffodils at Michaels Craft’s a couple weeks ago when they were having their giant sale which saved 50% per stem.  I added water to the vases that I already had from Home Goods to give the illusion that they were real. I’m not a fan of faux flowers but these are ok. They look real enough for me.

TIP: I spray my faux flowers with clear acrylic  “gloss” spray made for crafting and flowers. If you want the appearance of a bright shiny flower, try this technique. Don’t spray to much on the flowers but just enough to brighten up the color.

I added the flying doves that I purchased from Target last spring, one of our wooden cutting boards from our kitchen as well as a white pottery pitcher from Home Goods filled with faux boxwood. I also added the Pottery Barn DIY speckled Easter eggs that we made a couple weeks ago.

How to decorate a spring mantel can actually be really easy if you tell yourself you cannot spend any money. I know, that sounds strange but sometimes when my budget is a little more, I end up buying things unnecessarily and then become overwhelmed with what to do with it. Does that make any sense? My grandmother asked me what I was doing a couple days ago (I was working on this mantel) and she said, I hope you didn’t buy anything, you have so much stuff already! She is right, I took a page out of her book and spent under $10 for the daffodils and I’m pleased with how it looks. This entire “look”, under $20 between the mantel and the drapery. If you love the curtains, be sure to check out how I made these burlap curtains for under $7 a panel. Do you have any inexpensive shelf decorating tips to share? Leave them in the comments below, I would love to hear to them!