Christmas Mantel With A Vintage Book Tree and Gifts

Ok, maybe, just maybe, I’ve always wanted to work on visual/window displays! Anthropologie, anyone? I’ve been mesmerized by their displays forever! So, I talked recently about how Christmas came so fast this year, leaving me feeling a bit discouraged when it came to decorating. I looked at my mantel the other night and had this Scrooge mentality of “is it even worth doing at this point?” Well, I’m so glad I got Scrooge out of my system, brought up my box of pretty green ornaments, and just STARTED!

So, what you see here actually started with the book tree. I found that at Home Goods a few years ago, and initially styled it in my foyer for the Better Homes & Gardens Christmas shoot!

I remembered this tree when I started brainstorming ideas for my mantel, and questioned whether it would fit. It actually just made it! So perfect! Filling it with a bunch of my green books was the easy part. The hard part came with what to surround it with. I kind of envisions dangling a bunch of green ornaments from the ceiling, but that seemed a bit too ambitious for me at the moment. Lol! Maybe next year! Then I remembered the gifts I put in the cubbies on the other side of the room…

Decided to pull them over and just played around for a bit. They were stackable up to a point. When I tried to go any higher, buy propecia vs proscar they started to tumble down. Which was fine, because I realized it wouldn’t make much sense for them to go up around the tree. The way I have it kind of makes it looks as if they’re surrounding the bottom of the tree, like real gifts would look like around a real three dimensional tree. So I stopped there and filled any gaps with green bulbs.

I loved this as is, but when I went to photograph, I decided to flank the fireplace with my two green velvet chairs for added color, and then decided to throw on a green dress and take part. This was honestly so fun! The scattered ornaments and gifts are my favorite part of this whole thing. Truly felt like a window display and that’s the feeling I was hoping for.

Can you sense my excitement in this photo? …

There you have it, friends. No care for practicality. Just playing around this holiday season and doing some experimenting. It’s amazing what happens when you aren’t guided by a deadline, but by creativity for creativity’s sake. Whatever it is that’s got you feeling hesitant or unmotivated? Just START. Throw the calendar out the window and do what makes your heart feel good. Whether it’s decorating for Christmas in October, or getting your tree up the week before Santa comes. Who cares!

Cheers and Happy Decorating!

Haneen