I have a built in buffet original to home. It has a mirrored back, and at one time, it probably had glass shelves. There are notches indicating some sort of shelving was inserted within the mirrored opening. I image swanky parties “Madmen” style with bottles of liquor or wine decanters, and crystal glasses topping off the shelves. You would be able to hear jazz music playing on a record player floating in from the living room…Yes, sometimes, my imagination gets the best of me!
If you haven’t noticed, I fell in love with this buffet and all of it’s original molding just like I did our fireplace. (I will be sharing the fireplace in another post coming soon). For the past couple of months, I have had a rustic monogram sign resting against the mirror on the top of the buffet. This eclectic pairing is a theme I have throughout my home. I love to mix vintage, traditional and farmhouse or shabby chic items together. It just gives a casualness to the design that makes the more traditional pieces like the buffet not seam so fussy.
Next, I added a dessert stand, I picked up at a garage sale a while back. I’ve been using it in a decorative manner showcasing flowers and small figurines. For the autumn version, I will be using pine cones, faux leaves, and berries. Similar items can be picked up at your local craft store. We have a lot of pine trees in our area, so I was able to collect them on walks throughout our neighborhood. The leaves and berries were in large bushes too large to fit on the stand, so I decided to snip them apart.
Next, I started arranging them on the top and the bottom of the stand. I like to do arrangements in odd number pairings. It gives it a more natural appearance like mother nature whipped it up for you herself.
When making these arrangements, I find that sometimes they don’t quite look right. Usually, the problem is related to the arrangement being either too tall or too short or too skimpy. In this case, I was only going to add the pine cones, leaves, and the berries, but it was missing something. I change my decor seasonally, so I look for items I can use for multiple seasons like these neutral colored decorative balls. In this display, the addition of the balls gave the extra height and bulk needed to pull it all together.
To balance out the opposite side of the sign, I opted to use a Ball Ideal 1/2 pint canning jar that I picked up at an estate sale. It’s a vintage aqua blue jar that dates from 1923 to 1933 based on the type of calligraphy template used when casting the raised ‘Ball Ideal’ label on the glass. You can reference this information from a blog by Karen M. Vincent called How to Date a Ball Jar . At the time of her blog post, she was the Minnetrista Director of Collections, and handled questions for the Ball Corporation on their website related to finding the age of their antique and vintage jars. 
I couldn’t let the jar sitting there all by itself, even though it is quite beautiful on it’s own, so I added a pine cone, a metallic gourd, and some leaves to finish. I always like to tuck a leaf or a flower in somewhere when decorating. It just fills up the space.
The final touch I wanted for the buffet, is to include some height over the sign. I felt like everything was a little too horizontal. After some deliberation, I chose one of my wreathes. I used a clear command strip hook on the mirror. The command strip hooks are easy to remove and won’t damage the mirror’s finish. I felt the pumpkin orange, creamy white, and aqua green wreath pulled all the colors together quite nicely. 
If you are interested in purchasing the vintage Ball Ideal jar or the fall wreath, I have pictured the items below with a link, or visit my Etsy Shop.
Thank you for taking the time to read and visit my Home On Elderwood. Please, let me know what you think of this project by using the comment box below. I look forward to hearing from you!
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