Holiday Mantel 2022

Well, I loved last year’s mantel so much, I wasn’t quite sure if I could top it. I mean, holiday decorating shouldn’t be about one-upping yourself. Lol But it’s always fun for me to challenge myself to come up with something different each year. Something I have to figure out. By golly, I think I did it. This was a JOY to put together. Here’s a look back…

Last year’s holiday mantel…

This year’s holiday mantel…

Gah! It’s so warm and full and breathtaking! (In my opinion. Lol!) I worked on this while procrastinating packing for Italy (more on that trip when I’m less jet-lagged and have gone through all my pix and gathered the names of all the places we visited and food we ate). I decided to lean in to the fact that our home’s colors lean autumnal. No need to force yourself to have a red and green Christmas!

So, I kind of forgot to document how I did this, friends. I did start doing a timelapse video to make a reel, but I forgot to actually take photos of the process. So I went in to look at the video and took a screen shot of the important part. Basically, I used the same exact chicken wire as last year- cut it into the shape of an upside down and flipped “L.” I bent it around the mantel for it to take shape and nailed it in a few spots for it to stay put. Here’s the screenshot:

After that, I stuffed five or six pieces of garland into the holes, securing them with zip ties, and shaped it more but filling in with random faux cedar picks. You can find them in the floral/seasonal section at Michael’s, Joann’s, Hobby Lobby, At Home- any of those places.

I found the most incredible stockings made from vintage Turkish rugs! It’s from Etsy seller TurkishHandmadeRugTR.

This is the first year I decided to layer a wreath over the mirror, and I love it.

Easy tip, friends! I just cut some bare branches from trees out back and hung ornaments off of them! I put them in this rustic vase. Funny enough, orange and brown were my high school colors and I always thought they were such ugly colors for a cheer uniform (former cheerleader, here!:) But here we are, all these later, and I couldn’t love this combo more.

I let it cascade to the floor for added drama. The wooden trees are from both Home Goods and Hobby Lobby, and I found the bells, ornaments, and ribbon at Hobby Lobby too, but none of that is linkable, so I’ve linked very similar stuff below!

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Happy Decorating!

Haneen