I was looking for something tall to “anchor” my fireplace mantel.

So for my most recent (which seems already like so long ago) weekend DIY project, I spray painted a few branches. First, I let them dry out in the basement for a few days. Considering I saw these black branches at West Elm for $30/piece, this is one easy — and cheap! — decorating project for Fall. In this case, the branches fell onto my property AND I already had shiny black spray paint AND needed to fill this red vase.

Cost: FREE!

This DIY took me all of 20 minutes of my 30-something schedule. In all honesty, it took me longer to “style” the mantel.

Note: I had pictures of this project mid-spray paint, but apparently deleted them in my iPhone update purge (which I STILL haven’t been able to do). *groan* You get the idea. Now, to decorate my mantel FOR REAL for Fall. Need some Pinspiration…

Picture found (lame haha):

Update! Here’s my first step in updating my mantel for Fall (I was feeling motivated last night):

I grabbed my raven bookends, some books with scary themes or covers, and a few Halloween-themed accessories. I also changed around the pictures displayed up there — took down the large black-and-white artwork that my boyfriend and I BOTH hate. Using a few framed and unframed pieces of art that have been left unhung since we painted the interior of the house (another to-do for another day), I added some height and different textures. I still think I need something round up there — maybe a bowl or something?

Did you work on any of your own Weekend DIY projects this past weekend?