Whew! Are you dizzy from the blog tour yet? I am!! But this has been so much fun. We’ve seen some fantastic Christmas inspiration from these blogs, and it isn’t over yet!! Today I’m showing my nostalgic Christmas mantel, and tomorrow, Denise gives us some wall vignette ideas!
OK, on to the mantel!!
The fun building block for this mantel is the antique sled. This sled has been in our family for over 30 years. No, she doesn’t see a whole lot of action here in the deep south, but we have taken her for an occasional spin. The most fun time was nearly 20 years ago after several inches of snow (oh my, how time flies!) when we were building a house in a cul-de-sac at the top of a pretty steep hill. We didn’t live there yet, but we loaded up the girls and the sled in the truck and headed to our new neighborhood. Since there were no cars on the street, we had a ball sledding down that hill all afternoon!
So, knowing that I wanted to incorporate the sled in the mantelscape, I chose to concentrated on mixing in some old items, along with new. Above the mantel, the scene is anchored by an old window. The paint is peeling off and it is just perfect for the feel I am after! I wish I could say I ‘picked’ this window myself, but I found it at University Pickers… a wonderful antique mall here! Trish, Cindy and everyone else there are fantastic to work with and have lots of wonderful items to ‘pick’ from {pun intended!}. Cindy knew just what I needed when I described the look I was going for!
I also wanted to bring in a little red, as the sled has some red, along with the gorgeous wood tones going on. So I hung a natural wreath (pine cones and berries) from the top of the window, and added greenery and other natural elements to ‘ground’ the arrangement, including a pre-lit garland to add just a little twinkle! Mr. Red Bird was also added. This little guy shows up somewhere around the house most any season! Then I added a red finial and one of my prized reindeer!
I may do an another post to show how I get additional height when adding items like the candlestick and votives!
Aren’t the burlap stockings gorgeous?? These are handmade (again, not by me – but by The Speckled Hen) and were also purchased at University Pickers.
There you have it! It’s a pretty simple but effective, mantel design. I hope you’ll try building a Mantel Scape around an item that is nostalgic for you! And I wish you a very Merry Christmas!!
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