White Rustic Christmas Mantel

Happy Monday guys! I don’t typically post on Mondays, but with my kiddos home at the end of this week for the holiday, I thought I would stop in and say hi today. I’m sharing my Christmas mantel in case you are looking for some tips or inspiration this week.

My mantel has always been a favorite space of mine to decorate. This year I kept it simple and left our mirror up that is normally here. Mainly because I couldn’t bring myself to nail any extra holes in our beautiful wood work. I’m still working on my nail hole phobia in the new house…

I added these chunky candlesticks that I have had for a million years and if you have been reading the blog for a long time you may recognize them. They are currently gray (thanks to a coat of spray paint), but they have been red, blue, black and white. I use them every year in various spots and just paint them to match my decor.

If you read my post on Friday about our breakfast nook (find it here), I mentioned I start with a faux garland and work in some fresh greens. I did that here as well and added a strand of battery operated lights and a bunch of sticks from our yard that I spray painted white.

I used these cozy knit stockings, which I wired right to the garland. So, there are actually just two nails holding up this whole garland. My mantel is old and rustic so I don’t mind putting nails in it, but if you have nice wood work like at our last house I used 2 small white nails in the top of our mantel that I kept there all year round so that I wasn’t constantly ruining the wood. I use floral wire wrapped around the garland and then tied to the nails to get this swag effect.

I found these super cool giant snowy pine cone looking things at a local green house (Fruitbasket Flowerland if you are in the Grand Rapids area) and wired those into the garland as well. Spoiler alert, I also put them in my tree.

Another quick tip, I have made a mess of my mantel in the past with candles, so I finally bought some of those led candles and I’m not sure why I didn’t do it sooner. My favorite thing is they are on a timer, so every day at 4pm they automatically flicker on and it makes this room so cozy. Especially with my mantel being so tall, I would probably never really light these candles and now they are “lit” everyday.

I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving this week and I just wanted to say how thankful I am for all of you who stop by here. I started this blog on a whim 6 years ago and it’s grown into not only such a creative outlet for me, but I also really love connecting with all of you. Your emails, sweet comments and fun ideas over the years always mean so much!

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