Style My Christmas Mantel With Me - Step By Step!

Written By Chaney Widmer

*This post is sponsored by Wayfair and contains affiliate links, which means Mix & Match Design Company earns a small commission from your purchase at no cost to you. All content and opinions are my own.

The holiday season is rapidly approaching! We’re just a couple of weeks away from Thanksgiving, and Christmas is around the corner. Some of you may already be planning out your decorating strategy and buying up those seasonal pieces like garlands and wreaths before they sell out!

Today I want to take a little bit of the mental load out of that for you and point you to a simple way to decorate your mantel for the holidays. I’ll also share a few lovely additions I found on Wayfair to round out my look for this year. Everything came so quickly, which made it easy to get a jump on this year’s decorating.

We’ll walk it through it step by step so you can replicate exactly what I did. If you happen to be in the less is more camp like I am, I think you’ll really like this look. It definitely feels festive, but not over the top or difficult to pull off!

Here’s what my everyday mantel looks like to give you a reference point:

And here’s where we’re headed today!

Here’s what you’ll need to create this look:

Psst! You can also shop this look on the LTK app! Check out the post here.

Step 1: Clear the mantel

Pull anything off that you want to replace with seasonal decor. For me, this was a framed silhouette and a landscape painting, as well as a Christmas cactus (oh the irony of taking it down, ha!). My large painting stays up year round. :)

Step 2: Lay out your garland

I like to use two shorter garlands for the base, plus one additional layered on top in the middle for fullness. The reason I use two separate ones for the base is so that I can change the direction of the “grain” of the pine branches so they’re mirror images of each other with the tips pointing out. Here I used two Norfolk Pine garlands as the base and one Cedar in the middle.

I moved to faux garlands a number of years ago and haven’t looked back! I’m happy to do real garland outside, but not having pine needles to clean up inside is a gift to my sanity. Plus, you can use them year after year, so the investment is worth it!

Below you’ll see the cedar layered on - it adds just enough extra fullness in the middle area!

Step 3: Hang your stockings

I love using weighted stocking hangers. Mine are ancient, but I found these similar ones along with some green plaid stockings from Wayfair (they really do have just about everything you could need for holiday decorating). No nails needed! Do be cautious if you have little ones though since they could still pull them down. If you wanted to be extra safe, you could use a command strip on the back to secure them to your mantel temporarily.

Do you fill stockings in your house for Christmas? It’s one of my favorite traditions and I love having a mantel to hang them on. I can’t wait to see those stuffed to the brim.

Step 4: Add lights!

There’s nothing more magical than Christmas lights, is there? For wreaths and garland, I love these tiny fairy lights. They’re battery powered and so easy to lay out. This strand was long enough to go end to end twice. Those tiny lights are powerful too! You can easily hide the battery case behind the garland. It has two settings: “on” and “timer.” Having a timer is so great if you find yourself being one of those people who forgets to turn them off at the end of the night (myself included).

Step 5: Sprinkle in some ornaments

I threw these straw ornaments into my Wayfair cart last minute and I’m so glad I did. They’re just right to add a little more layering to my mantel while still keeping it simple. They’re giving off some serious Scandinavian vibes, aren’t they? I tucked them into the garland with a little bit of space between each. I didn’t think that hard about it - just played around with it until it looked right!

Catch a glimpse of these cuties up close…and see how real that faux garland looks!

Step 6: Light up some candles

My last step was to add some candles! Tapers are another great way to bring that magical glow to your Christmas mantel. These tall black candlesticks are perfect to bring some height to your mantel decor. This year I went with a light terracotta color rather than a traditional red or green and I’m loving it. The set of three I picked up has twisted, flat, and ribbed candles, which adds a little bit of whimsy.

I placed them opposite the stockings so that there would be some visual balance on the mantel. The overall look is not perfectly symmetrical, which was a purposeful choice to juxtapose with the symmetrical garland. It keeps things visually interesting while your eye moves around the vignette.

And there you have it! A simple, easy way to style your mantel for Christmas. I’m including another closeup of the garland below to show you how realistic they look - they’re good ones! I’ve also rounded up all the sources again so you can easily shop this look.

So tell me, how are you decorating for Christmas this year?

Chaney Widmer http://mixandmatchdesign.com
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