Thanks so much to Wayfair Canada for sponsoring this post and for supplying some of the decor items!
I’m so excited to be partnering up with Wayfair.ca for today’s post on Christmas Mantel decor. Well, actually it’s all about Christmas No-Mantel decor! Traditional Christmas decor always seems to revolve around a fireplace with a big beautiful mantel but so many of us live in homes without a mantel. We still want to bring that traditional Christmas look and feel to our homes though, so what are we to do?
A lot of newer homes are built these days without a fireplace, and of course there are apartments, townhouses, and all other different kinds of homes that often don’t have a mantel either. Although our home is over 120 years old, we don’t have a fireplace, and actually none of the homes around here seem to that I’ve seen. I think that they used to put the wood stoves down in the basements when they built these houses, so we all seem to have living rooms without fireplaces! It’s not a big deal though because I’ve figured out how to deal with that over the last few years and I really like what I’ve come up with.
In past years, we used to use a long rustic console table that we made out of old barn wood. You can see it here in this post about our living room from a couple of year ago. It looked great and we still have that table, but we had to move it out of its central location in the living room because the splintery wood isn’t exactly toddler-friendly. We installed this floating shelf up at mantel height a few years ago and that’s what I’ve been using for my mantel decor instead. Or rather, “fantel” (fake mantel) decor as I call it. 🙂
Here’s how the rest of the Christmas “fantel” turned out this year!
I used this Wayfair.ca Faux Magnolia Leaf Wreath to kind of “anchor” the whole look of the mantel to start out with.
I’ve always loved the look of magnolia wreaths, but the quality on them can be hit or miss. I’m so happy that this is the one I ended up with because you really do have to touch it to tell that it isn’t real! If you love this look too, definitely take a look at this one first. You can’t always tell from photos which wreaths are going to look good in person, but this Birch Lane one really exceeded my expectations!
I also decided to use this Wayfair.ca Set of 3 Vine Topiaries. I used the two smaller ones on either side of the mantel and then the largest one over next to the stockings to sort of tie the two areas together.
These topiaries are actually way more beautiful in person than they look on the website in my opinion! They have a really nice natural twiggy look to them and I think they have a really nice woodland vibe to them too, which can work with so many different styles.
I think these are great because they look really nice just as they are, but you could also easily dress them up with some twinkle lights or little ornaments. They’d also work for other seasons too and I’d love to see them in an outdoor table setting (or something like that) in the summer.
The stockings I used are the Wayfair.ca Reindeer Classic Knit Stockings. They’re nice and big so the kids love them! 🙂
I really like that they have a real hand-knit look to them and they’re made of a really thick, wooly yarn that you don’t usually get in basic, store-bought stockings.
If you think you’d like to try creating something like my fake mantel your home, then you’re in luck! You can create your own “fantel” in so many different ways. It could be that you install a little floating shelf like I did and then hang your stockings nearby, but you could also create a mantel-scape on top of a dresser, a buffet, a console table, or just about any flat surface! I think the key to success is using items that are normally used on a traditional mantel, and making sure they really have a great presence and visual “weight” to them so that your “fantel” becomes a focal point in the room. Finish the project up by hanging a few stockings that you absolutely love just under your fantel or nearby on hooks or a ladder and you’ll have a great look!
Did you see what I did with my stockings? I discovered this a couple of years ago and it works really well for our house. We just leaned this old ladder up against the wall, anchored it to the wall (of course) and that’s what I use to hold my stockings! It’s still nearby enough that it feels like it’s almost part of the fantel, but it keeps the stockings kind of out of the way in the corner of the room as well so they aren’t always getting bumped in to. You could also pick up some of those removable pull-tab hooks and use them to hang your stockings temporarily anywhere that makes sense for you!
So that’s how we do our Christmas mantel in our home! I hope this post gave you some ideas for your own home as well!
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.