Phew! I feel like I have been missing in action for WEEKS! I think I have visited only one or two blogs in the recent past (and one of them I stumbled upon only because she did a lovely review of Miss D.) Seriously, I have been doing nothing but sawing, painting, nailing and climbing up and down a ladder for days and days and DAYS on end! (I'm exaggerating, of course--I also ate and showered once or twice and managed to keep up with every second of the doings on So You Think You Can Dance. I have standards, after all.)
It's not as if I set out to completely alter my living room but when I came across a incredible headboard for cheap at a garage sale a few months ago, the wheels in my head started spinning as to how I could use it in my house. Since it was a King sized headboard and I have a lowly Queen sized bed, using it in my bedroom was out AND, though the Big Guy's size fully justifies the use of a King sized bed, he sleeps on a double which is laid low upon the floor (no box spring) so that he doesn't break anything, including his head--therefore using it in his room was out. However, after standing on a steaming hot driveway in the 105 degree heat for thirty minutes looking at said headboard from all angles, I finally came up with An Idea.
Now, the "fireplace" below is lovely and it has served as an adequate "cover" for our large screen TV for three plus years, now. The mantel was made by my talented brother-in-law as a christmas present one year to fit the carved wood piece below with the "legs" which used to be a headboard in the Breckenridge hotel in Colorado over 100 years ago and has served as a beautification to every real and actual fireplace I have had in the past twelve years (there have been three). . . (and, yes, that is a mirror hanging over a mirror. People often ask me why-- but I've got nothing). 
However, I think you will agree that the mantel below has just a little more pizzazz . . . (or perhaps not).
The old mantle is now upside down on top of the newly acquired headboard, the old headboard has been cut down (by moi. With a pull saw! At great sacrifice to my comfort) and attached to the base of the newly acquired headboard which is resting on newly acquired cubicles which rest on the old cubicles (yes, things are still a bit of a mess towards the bottom--it is The Spouse's job to finish cutting up a six cubicle laminate shelf system into smaller cubicles of custom sizes and he kind of pooped out, poor fella).
All the walls have been painted to match the one that has been lonesomely green for over a year now . . . 
. . . and mouldings attached to meet snugly with the corners of the headboard-turned-mantel and all with recycled, re-used, scavenged, bought-on-a-great-sale, begged-borrowed-stolen items (in other words, for next to nothing). Of course, there is still one wall left to paint, the rosette around the entryway in the above picture to be re-set (it needs to be higher and to the right), another laminate cubicle to be created, the picture rail moulding needs another coat of paint . . .in short, I need a vacation!
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