How To Style A Mantel After Christmas

It is Back To Basics time! This month, the topic my blog friends and I are covering is ‘how to style a mantel’.

When I started planning for this post, the family room in our lower level was turned upside down. We had taken all of the Christmas decor down and brought out all of the decor items I stashed away during the holidays. Everything was thrown on the shelves and the mantel while I cleaned and organized. 

After the Christmas decorations are put away, I always start cleaning and organizing our home. I really enjoy the “empty” decor that happens after Christmas is put away. I like to live in that space for a while and really think about how I want to put things back together. 

Then, late last week, I was looking over my blog calendar and saw this ‘how to style a mantel’ post due and had to get my rear in gear and stop basking in the “empty mayhem”. It was time to get the family room back together.  

How To Style A Mantel After Christmas

Sometimes after Christmas, I really don’t want to decorate. Instead, I am in the mood to clean, organize and purge. I want to clean everything out and rethink each and every space in our home. It is liberating and soothing for me to do this every year. I know, that may sound strange, but it is true. I enjoy the cleaning and organizing process. (My family would probably argue that I like it a little too much.) 🙂 

Here are my tips for how to style a mantel after Christmas (when it is the last thing you want to do after the holidays.)

• Start With A Blank Slate: Whenever you are decorating anything, always start with a blank slate. To style a mantel after Christmas, take everything off of it and step back. How do you want the room to feel? The mantel is the focal point in a room so what do you want it to say when someone walks into the room?   
• Keep It Simple: Every year after we put the Christmas decorations away, I love how simple everything looks. I don’t want to add a ton of stuff to the mantel after Christmas because it was just full of stuff. Keep the mindset that less is more. 
• Purge! Purge! Purge!: In January, I am a purging machine. Just like I do when we pull Christmas decorations out, I purge decor pieces I don’t love when we pull them back out after Christmas. If you don’t love something, get rid of it. Too much stuff not only clutters your home, but it fills up your head space as well. When you style a mantel, only use pieces you love. Purge the rest. 

• Start Big: When I start styling a mantel, I always start with the bigger items first. The bigger items take up the most space physically and visually so start with them. Then, fill in around them with the smaller pieces. 
• Rule Of Odds: I believe in this “rule” whole-heartedly. When you decorate, decorate with odd numbers. It just looks better. If you have two pieces you love, try and find one more piece to add to the group. It will round out the mantel and make it look more cohesive. 
• Give Yourself A Break: Sometimes styling a mantel can be overwhelming. Relax and enjoy the process. You can always change it up (I do all the time). If you don’t feel like you have anything you want to add to the mantel, shop for a few items. I recommend heading to your local thrift stores to see what you can find first. (Find my tips for finding the best stuff at thrift stores HERE). Then, check out Home Goods, Target, TJ Maxx or online to find a few pieces.
• Take Photos: Style your mantel in a few different ways and take a photo of each option. Sometimes when you see it in a photo, you get a different perspective on what the mantel actually looks like. 

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I was not in the mood to style our mantel after Christmas this year, but once I started, I got into it. I got rid of a lot of the things I didn’t love and used the rest in our family room. Now, I need to hunt for new pieces to decorate the hutch in our living room upstairs and the cabinets in our dining area. I see some thrift store shopping in my near future.

I really think we are going to paint the family room soon and give it a mini makeover soon too. Stay tuned for that. 

Do you have a mantel in your home? How do you style it after the holidays?

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