CHRISTMAS (FAUX) MANTEL


I have wanted a Mantel to decorate for forever.  Sooooo I decided to build myself a Faux Mantle for Christmas.  I built it in one day, last Sunday as a matter of fact.  If you’ve been following my blog then you know it is unheard of for me to finish anything in one day.  I wanted a mantle that bad I guess.   

This year I decided to use what I have to decorate for Christmas.   



I will post how I built the mantle later this week but for now I want to share how I decorated it.   I was planning to use garland and  my red and green xmas balls like I did in the dining room but it just wasn’t working for me on the new mantel so I went a different route.  I started with a faux garland that looks pretty darn realistic to me and added a few different sized pine cones.  Then I hung my pine cone wreath.   


I have one piece of mercury glass, the candle holder, so I had to use it.   The lantern is a salvage score I got for $1 it was a light fixture and I ripped the wiring out, love the patina.   A few glass votives thrown in and that’s about it.  Simple and rustic.  To fill the bottom up I used an old crate I had.  Inside is a galvanized bucket I found awhile back at the Restore for $3.  All the greenery is from our yard.  I cut down a small tree to make the logs.  With a dull hand saw I might add because I couldn’t find the bow saw.  It. Took. Forever. & it started raining.  

Wouldn’t it look cute if I drilled holes in the ends of the logs and put tealights in them?  Kinda scares me, can you say fire hazard?  Maybe I will do it and use battery powered ones hmmm.   The fir branches I picked up off the back patio.  How convenient that they had fallen out of our tree, good thing we hadn’t picked them up yet.



Last minute I decided I needed some lights, I added some that I had that kinda remind me of pine cones, perfect.  Love it!



Truthfully I am not finished with the mantel I plan to add big beefy trim to the bottom eventually but for now I wanted to share at some mantel parties and I ran out of time.  Stay tuned for how I built the mantel.

Merry Christmas friends!




Linking up to these parties: