How to Complete a Holiday Mantel in 12 Ways

Photo courtesy of Fig & Pigeon

1. Add handmade items

Be crafty! Adding handmade items to your mantle is the perfect way to personalize and add that special something to your holiday decor. Browse your local hardware store and pick up fresh pine boughs and twine to create a fragrant garden or support independent artists by adding unique handmade items to holiday decorations. – Craft Contemporary

2. Prepare every inch of the mantel

As a central part of the home, changing mantle decorations seasonally is the perfect way to create a focused look, without needing to cover multiple rooms with seasonal decor. A strong mantle vignette uses all available space, both horizontally and vertically to create depth and layering.

Start with three or four things that can stay on the mantle for a year. Plants or family photos in a neutral color palette can create harmony in your look. Vases or other containers can be easily updated for each holiday with new fillers, pumpkins for Halloween, decorations for Christmas or sea shells for summer. Build a closer look at the focus

then keep adding more to the mantle until 75% of the available space is covered. In mantle decoration too much of the available space can make the look appear cluttered and unintended. – Rocky Mountain Bliss

3. Add holiday decor while giving back to the community

To encourage some giving this season of giving, use the template to create and cut out 12 round ornaments. On each ornament, write an idea of ​​a simple and inspiring act of kindness that children or the whole family can do together during the holiday season, from donating toys to a Toy Drive, writing a kind note to a teacher to baking cookies for a neighbor. Insert these notes into the center of the evergreen wreath across the mantel or string from the festive ribbon to create a graceful shell on the front of the mantel. – Crafting Kind Kids

4. Customize your hat with personalized socks

To make a great holiday mantle it needs to be festive but it also needs to represent your family. Personalize with a custom family logo or socks with everyone’s names on them. Monogrammed pendants and socks are another great option! This is a great DIY project that you can do with a Cricut cutter or you can find more personalized holiday decorations on Etsy. Don’t forget to include the fur babies! – Heat Press Method

5. Create a special place to show off your family

Create a scene that includes your memories (decorations, photos, socks). Continue that theme throughout your holiday decorations so everything ties together. Start your mantel with a strip of LED lighting along the back edge to create a soft glow. Add your moments and fill with fresh greenery and flowers that are easily replaced for a new look throughout the season. – Brick and Mantel

6. Focus on seasonal colors

It seems that magenta and blue are the dominant colors for this Holiday Season, but we would like to point out something more important. Focusing on natural elements, instead of color, combined with the richness of the effect, will accept and add color (or a combination of colors) to the composition if it is considered directly. With abundance in mind, greenery, wood, wreaths, mixed with candles, ribbon, small toys or figurines, glassware, wrapped gifts….will create the perfect Holiday Mantel and add magic to any space. – Perpetuum Designs

7. Start a DIY project that everyone will enjoy

A budget-friendly way to add character to your holiday mantel is to make stock hangers from scrap wood! Use 4×4 pieces of 1×4 (2 for each hanger) and paint them in the color of your choice. Then add a letter cut out of vinyl to spell the word (I used SILENT for our family of 5), join the two pieces to make an upside down T, add hooks and hang your family’s socks. – Leap of Faith Crafting

Photo courtesy of Nicolette Capuano

8. Less is more when it comes to the holiday mantel

Go with flowers: The easiest and most effective way to bring holiday cheer is to use garland on your mantel. This brings texture and when lights are added, ambient light at night.

Mix and match: Don’t be afraid to mix styles! As seen above, the traditional floral design goes well with the geometric art pieces and the color palette ties the two together.

Keep it simple: Sometimes minimalist designs are the most impactful. Don’t feel like you have to put all the decorations you have on top. Choose a few pieces that go together in a color palette and place your other pieces elsewhere. Keeping it simple allows for a very unique and eye-catching focal point! – Abstract Art by Nicolette Capuano

9. Make sure the decor compliments the interior of your home

The most important aspect of decorating for the holidays is making sure that the style and color scheme of your seasonal decorations complements the overall interior of your home. I like to focus on drawing inspiration from the landscape of a space and include unexpected things, bold textures, and things that engage all the senses. Large fragrant shoots of eucalyptus, antique brass bells tied with burlap or silk tartan ribbon, pheasant feathers contrasted with glossy magnolia leaves, and generous clusters of dried or fresh citrus fruits will fill the room with fragrance once warmed by the fire. By creating a collage style with wreaths and cutouts you can design a layered and unique outfit that will serve as a backdrop for the holiday season. – Danielle Rollins

10. Decorate socks to match the holiday spirit

A holiday mantel isn’t complete without socks and who says they have to be plain as they come from the store? With Siser® Heat Transfer Vinyl you can customize them with glittery words, glittery sayings, or mysterious stock figures that reflect your unique holiday spirit. All you need to get started is some Siser® HTV, a vinyl cutter, and a household iron- so anyone can make their holiday outfit shine this season! – Siser®

11. Natural elements will keep your home looking holiday all season long

The holiday season encompasses many traditions from various religions and therefore, our approach to the holiday mantle scale is to lean towards using natural materials. Natural greens from various pine trees convey a sense of winter festivities as opposed to committing to any particular holiday.

Natural pine cones, dried fruits such as oranges or pomegranates add a sense of excitement while mixing magnolia leaves gives the basic greens a pop of volume to bring drama to the mantle-scape!

Use your imagination by adding anything natural and eye-catching. – Michael Del Piero

Photo courtesy of Fig & Pigeon

12. Decorate by placing materials

There are a few things I like to include when decorating the mantle for the holidays. First I like to work in sections- First I place my stocking holders on top of the dress evenly spaced. I often purchase cypress garland from a local nursery and intersperse it with other seasonal greenery to add more texture, height, and color variation. For warmth (and safety), I layered our flameless LED lights. This year I plan to add something different by using high quality silverware on our decorative stands. Finally, to add a punch of color I added a colored tassel to each stock to tie in the color scheme I chose for our wrapping paper. – Fig & Pigeon