The Mantel: An Adult's Trophy Shelf

I have a theory about fireplace mantels. I think they're basically the adult version of the trophy shelf you had when you were a kid.

Think about your childhood bedroom. Maybe you had a bookshelf, or just a shelf attached to the wall. Whenever you won something, that's where it went. Soccer trophy? On the shelf. Spelling bee certificate? On the shelf. Third place in a T-ball tournament? That deserved a prominent spot too.

Those things may not seem terribly important to us now, but when you're eight years old, they're a pretty big deal. They're your accomplishments. They're the things you're proud of, and naturally, they're the things you want other people to see.

Then we grow up.

Our Trophies Change

As adults, we still accomplish things. We graduate from college. We build careers. We get promotions. We start businesses. We earn awards. Maybe we even have a particularly good year financially.

But you probably aren't going to frame your diploma and hang it over the fireplace. You're definitely not going to frame your tax return. Even if you won a really impressive award, putting it front and center above the mantel would feel a little strange. Unless you've won an Oscar - and even then, I'm not sure I'd put it over the fireplace.

For what it's worth, I actually have something in that category sitting on a shelf somewhere. My ONE Project - the same personal series where people show me the one object they'd save from a fire - led to a WFAA feature that won a Lone Star Emmy, and the cameraman who filmed it was generous enough to give me his own statue afterward. It's nowhere near my fireplace either.

Somewhere along the way, what we're most proud of changes. For many of us, it becomes our family. I think that's one reason the space above the fireplace has traditionally been such a natural place for a family portrait. It's prime real estate. When someone walks into your home, that's one of the places their eyes naturally go. Whatever you put there says something about what matters to you.

In a way, the mantel is still your trophy shelf. The trophies have just changed.

What Are You Showing Off?

When you hang a large family portrait over the fireplace, you're making a statement without ever saying a word. This is what I'm proud of. Not the house. Not the diploma. Not the promotion. These people.

That's something I've always liked about displaying family portraits prominently in a home. It's not simply decoration. It says something about the family that lives there. When our boys were growing up, we always had portraits of them displayed prominently in our house, and usually some sort of family portrait over the fireplace. I liked having them there because that's what I wanted to see - and I have a hunch the boys understood exactly what it meant, too.

Ironically, I don't actually have a portrait over my own fireplace. Because I show clients their images in my home, that space is taken up by a screen I use for viewing portraits during the reveal. Instead, my family portrait hangs over the piano. When the day comes that I hang up the camera and no longer need that screen, it'll be the first thing to go - it's honestly the one part of my house I don't love.

A Different Kind of Trophy

The trophies we collected as kids celebrated things we did. The trophies we value as adults are often about the people we love. That's a very different kind of accomplishment - and probably a much more meaningful one.

So the next time you look at that big empty space over the fireplace, maybe don't think of it simply as a place that needs some artwork. Think of it as your trophy shelf. Then ask yourself what you're most proud to put there.

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