The Guestroom/Office - Wall Mounted Shelf

We did a few more updates to the Guestroom/Office that I thought I would share with you all.

Remember when our office area looked like this?

Blah. We've come a long way. You can read about how we transformed the desk (for free!) or our $15 file cabinet.

So after all the updates, we still needed some sort of artwork above the desk. A few of you gave me suggestions, all of which I liked. My first instinct was to go with a gallery wall, but since we already have one here and here we decided we wanted something different. We also wanted something free... Which seems to be a constant requirement in our house updates these days :)

Then I remembered that this mantle-thing had been hanging out in our attic space for nearly two years:

It's from Pottery Barn, but it had been given to us by Eric's parents a few years ago and we had used it as-is in our old apartment.

I thought it might look cool above the desk with some pictures and other decor items, but I felt like the wood tone might look like a big blob in the room - the room is really small and we have tried to combat that with light colors. I considered painting it white, but for some reason that didn't really work in my head either.

So. I painted it the same color as the room (Granite Dust by Valspar) and I love the way it looks! It blends in but also stands out at the same time... I know - kind of a weird description but check it out:

 I kind of just stuck some things on the ledge that we had sitting around. The mirror once hung in the closet, the "s" is from Hobby Lobby, the candle is from Anthro and the picture and print were once sitting on a bookshelf.

Eventually I think we'll probably change out some of the artwork and decor, but for now it works - especially since we had everything and didn't have to send a print?

What do you think? Have you every painted a shelf the same color as your wall? Is that something you would ever do?

paint shelf the same color as wall
what to put above a desk
small mantel