Design Dilemma: Awkward Mantle Space

My friend Jessica has a little design dilemma she asked for my input on. She has a very large and high shelf/mantle area that she isn't quite sure what to do with. She could put some greenery and iron stuff up there, but she wants something more unique with some pops of color. The tricky part is that the space is very large, so it could get quite expensive. I have never been to her house, so I don't have a good feel for the size, but I am guessing it is bigger than it looks.



Here are some of my ideas, what are yours?

Blue or green glass. Both are pretty trendy and VERY easy to find at Goodwill and other thrift stores for a dollar or two an item. I think it would look cool to do all blue, blue and clear, green and clear, or a mixture of all three colors in various sizes and shapes. That way whenever you find more you can add, but there is no pressure to be uniform. Here is a inspiration photo.

 





My other suggestions would be to decide on several colors and paint some clear glass. Go to a goodwill and pick up a bunch of random clear glass vases and containers and paint them. Here are some things I found on pinterest. I love the idea of taking the rubber bands and putting them around the glass and then spray painting for some added design. I would stick to three or four different colors so that there is a theme. Just make sure you get a good spray paint, that says it is made for glass.






See the tutorial on spray-painting glass here.

Another idea would be colorful, empty wine bottles. Currently Jessica is pregnant, so I am not going to recommend drinking crates of wine, but wine bottles can be easy to come by if you ask your wine-drinking friends to stock up for a few weeks. Also if you check craigslist under "free" there is often a link for free wine bottles if you come and pick them up. There are a lot of people who know that they are trendy in decorating right now and are willing to help out! You could even spray paint them for real pops of color. These aren't the best pictures, but you can get the idea....





My final idea would be to do some pops of color with artwork, similar to younghouselove's behind the couch artwork. Just instead of putting the big, square, white frames on the wall behind the couch, put them in a line in the shelf space.


You really could just frame plain colorful paper, or get more creative and add little prints of notecards or something like that. This way you could switch it out when you get sick of it. Like they did here. The only thing is that you would probably want uniform frames, so you most likely couldn't find them at a second-hand store. But Michael's has sales on frames a lot, plus they have coupons all the time.

Frames are ridiculously expensive, and one of the best things to buy at thrift stores. So, you could find a bunch of random frames at goodwill, etc., spray paint all the frames white and them frame colorful paper or fabric and just lean them on the wall, like this shelf. (but colorful)

Another idea would be to gather frames, spray paint them white, and paint the glass with colorful chalkboard paint.




Can't wait to see what Jessica does with the space!! Any other ideas for Jessica?? Anyone else have an awkward space they don't know what to do with?