I've gotten really good with decorating trees over the years; however, you can't ignore the huge brick elephant in the room: the mantel. If you're like me, you've gone to the store, purchased a flimsy garland, and either laid it across the mantel or affixed it there with hooks of some variety or another.
In the past, I've done an okay job of decorating my mantle, this is certainly up for debate:
So, I was thumbing through Southern Living and saw this image in a feature on mantles.
The caption for this mantel was "lush and sophisticated." That sounded right up my alley. There were a few problems to solve. 1) Where was I going to get all of this greenery? They used holly, pine, and cedar branches, magnolia leaves, rose hips, and aspidistra leaves. Aspidistra? I could be wrong, but I don't think you can pick this stuff up in the grocery store aisle. 2) It looked heavy. There was no way those lovely 3M Command hooks that I had been using was going to hold this monster up. So, it was time to get creative...
First, a trip the big box hardware store.
I picked up two planks of wood that are about an inch wider than my mantel, stain that relatively matches the mantel, and small c-clamps that are wide enough to clamp the thickness of both the board and the mantel. Once home, I stained the wood. This took two days because I stained both the top, bottom, and sides of the wood to be sure that if any of it was exposed, no one could tell that it wasn't the lip of the mantel.
To solve the problem of anchoring so much material to my mantel, I staggered and hammered nails into the outer edge of the board. The nails hold everything in place, and the nail heads keep any wire you use to anchor your material from slipping off. I do the same thing to the top of my kitchen cabinets and the top of a mirror from which I hang garland. Of course, I use much smaller nails.
I then used the C-clamps to affix the boards to the mantel. What you don't see in the pictures is that I use felt under the board and a small piece on top of the bottom of the clamp to protect the mantel.
Now it's time to layer in the greenery. To solve my first problem of finding greenery, I bought it all at a craft store that carries seasonal silk floral. I put my holiday decorations up November 1st, so live foliage wouldn't make it through the season. Also, if you take care of it, you buy the artificial stuff once, and you'll have it for years to come. I must warn you, this can become expensive because each stem is sold separately and can run between $6-$10 per stem. I used pine and cypress, both are selling at $10 this season. Luckily, you can always find a coupon, or there's a sale of some sort. You may even be about to use the coupon on the sale price. Either way, you will need a good deal of it, so start looking for it early, and buy a stem or two at a time if you have a coupon for 40%, 50%, and something even %60 off a single item. I have multiple craft stores that are on my route home, so I may stop at three or four going and coming from work and using that same coupon on my phone each time. It's a tedious task, but a dollar saved is a dollar earned!
I also used artificial fiddle tree leaves. They aren't necessarily winter foliage; but the were fall clearance at Z Gallerie. That's right, shop fall clearance. Fiddle leaves are huge; so they were just what I needed to make a statement.
After adding the fiddle leaves, it was time to add some floral. As you can tell, I didn't want it to read as red and white traditional Christmas. There were no bulbs or lights used.
I used chandelier crystal to lightly adorn it. It's rather inexpensive considering the look you get. It all glass so the refracted light really glitters. The links below are what I used. In another post, I'll show you the crystal tree which is decorated in nothing but this same garland and a number of the chandelier crystals and clear swirl glass finials and balls.
Get ready to make the season bright!
https://amzn.to/2ElOUB9 Pack of 12 Clear Crystal Chandelier Prisms Pendants Glass Pendants Beads (6pcs Teardrop + 6 pcs Maple Leaf Crystal Pendants)
https://amzn.to/2UJQ92O 19.7ft Clear Crystal Glass Octagon Beads Strands
https://amzn.to/2Empe7u Pack of 12 Clear Crystal Chandelier Lamp Lighting Drops Pendants Balls Prisms
Until,
K. Charles
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