My Christmas Mantel
The above picture is NOT my mantel lol! This was my inspiration for my Christmas Mantel! Melissa from the Inspired Room shared her mantel above and I {swooned} and dreamed and thought – hmph – wonder if I could do something like that? (By the way, her mantel was featured on HGTV and in Cottages and Bungalow Magazine and she’s a contributor over at RooMag.com with me!! This girl has talent!)
So I went to my favorite stores…like Target, JoAnn’s, Walmart lol!…and dug through my old Christmas items…looking for something similar to the above. And here’s how it turned out…(since my fireplace has darker wood it doesn’t look quite as similar as I had hoped…but I tried 🙂 )
I found the snowflake hangars similiar to Melissa’s at Target – hooray! And the white stockings were at Walmart for $6.97 each – FAB!
While I was at Target I found these – so simple and cute – the green wall needed some color:
But after I put them up it looked terribly lopsided and boring because I was too cheap to buy a second red tree for the other side lol!
So I stood back and pondered…what can I put on the other end of the mantel? And then it came to me…my Dayspring Set of 2 Glass Hurricanes that say “Giving Thanks”.
Voila! Done!
Edith Shaeffer says in the Art of Homemaking“If you have been afraid that your love of beautiful flowers and the flickering flame of the candle is somehow less spiritual than living in starkness and ugliness, remember that He who created you to be creative gave you the things with which to make beauty and gave you the sensitivity to appreciate and respond to his creation. Creativity is his gift to you and the ‘raw materials’ to be put together in various ways are His gift to you as well.”
Enjoy decorating your homes! You reflect the image of our creator when you create.Walk with the King!Courtney
Looks great! I am reading through that Edith Schaffer book right now. (And enjoying it!)
So lovely!
I’ve given you an award on Benmakesten:)
http://benmakesten.blogspot.com/2011/12/versatile-i-like-that.html
Hey Courtney!!! Thanks so much for the shout out and I’m thrilled that my mantel inspired yours! It looks great, that red really draws me in. I love red, I am using more of it this year after a year or two away from it. I missed it too much!!
Oh yeah, I should read that book, love the quote!
Merry Christmas!!!!
Very nice! I also very much liked that quote you shared and it makes me think of a lesson we taught our kindergarten class in Sunday school: “God made me to create”.
This is so very pretty! Love that last quote too! I have found that my family really appreciates decor even though I am the only girl in a family of 5, it is a nice way to bless them too.
I love it so much! Wish I had a mantle…
We have a beautiful heater that looks like a fireplace but we’re only renting this place! If this was our permanent place, I’d ask my husband to make it into a real fireplace!!
Thanks for the text on creativity, I was kind of thinking why we women do all this decorating.
But God gave us this gift too so we should use it!!
Thank you 🙂
So true. I was reflecting last night on how naturally women love to make a house a home. Especially at Christmas!
Lovely 🙂 I’ve been looking for stocking hangers and am going to check out Target’s selection this week. Thanks for the tip!
Such pretty pictures!!
lol. When I saw the first picture I was like, “There are more stockings than the # of people in their house!” Then I saw YOUR picture. It looks sooo pretty!
Courtney, I love your mantel! It’s lovely. Our mantel has a huge television over it because that’s where all the wiring is. Can’t quite capture the same effect!
I think your mantel is lovely – I like the balance of the hurricanes and the tree. What can we be more thankful for than Christ.
Your mantle is really pretty! This “Enjoy decorating your homes! You reflect the image of our creator when you create.” really touched and inspired me….I too love to decorate and make our house a wonderful sanctuary….when I’m decorating I feel calm and at peace…now I know why!!!
So pretty! And I love the quote too! It’s so true! He loves to give us the desire to make things beautiful, like He does!
This quote and post is so great! Thanks for sharing! I’m a new follower and I love your blog. My passion is teaching inductive Bible study so I’m loving how your blog is all about encouraging us women to get in the word! Have a great day!
I love Christmas decorations. I don’t think there is anything wrong with acknowledging with celebration and festivity the birth of our Lord. I don’t know about others, but my soul rejoices that Jesus came to earth for our salvation! That’s reason to celebrate, decorate, and most importantly to give thanks!
It is BEAUTIFUL! Your mantel inspires me! Lol! I love red during this season! Um…let’s see what I can do with my mantel. 🙂 Merry Christmas!
Love your mantel and love the Edith Schaeffer quote. That’s a great book.
Holly, Kyiv
Hi Courtney! Love your mantel and Melissa’s! Love the pops of red. I am always having to improvise because I am too, to cheap to just buy everything that will make it look right, but it’s fun looking around the house and finding just the right thing! Looks great!!
Jeana
I love it! It is beautiful! I wish I had an eye for creative things like this!!!
Both mantels are beautiful!
Congratulations, your mantel ended up looking beautiful. Your attempts inspired me to do our dark wood cabinet which looks like a mantel (we don’t have fireplaces in the Philippines – too hot 🙂 !), and my daughter wants to hang stockings, too. Your model and Aiken House and Garden’s fireplace photos will be my inspiration. I hope it turns out well :).
Rina
I wish that we could decorate our mantel like this. But the problem is that we have 4 cats that love to jump up onto the mantel when we put stuff up there. I don’t get it because they never jump up there until we get decorations up there. Its like they secretly wait for us to decorate and then attack. Looks amazing though and thanks for sharing the great ideas.
Hi Courtney, I love how you have decorated your mantel, it looks so pretty! I can’t believe those white stockings came from Walmart for just under $7 each! I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!!!!