Are you ready to learn how to decorate your mantle like a pro? I used to struggle with this issue myself- I could never find the right stuff to get the style I wanted and I ended up just sticking with a few candles and family pictures. At the end of the day my mantle décor game was just blah. By the end of this post you will know how to decorate a mantle and have items already pulled into a list for ideas on how decorate your next mantle- make sure you read to the very end!
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The mantle is many times a main focal point of a home, so you want it to be appealing and show off a little of your style. The end goal of creating an eye-pleasing mantle space is to create a space that grabs your attention and allows your eyes to travel and focus on more than one object- creating movement within the space (just like a piece of art).
Over the years, I have learned how and what to use to get the style I want and I am going to share all these tips with you so you can learn how to decorate your mantle like a pro!
BRAINSTORM– Learn How to Decorate your Mantle Like a Pro
Before I decorate my mantle, I always ask myself a few questions (brainstorm if you will) before I get started.
- What season/ holiday am I decorating for?
- Try to pick a theme and style to go with the season/holiday you are decorating for. This will help you stay on topic and avoid an eclectic variety of décor on your mantle and it also helps you purchase and shop with a purpose.
- What colors do I want to use?
- When picking colors, I stick to neutrals and 1-3 non-neutral colors
- Neutral colors would be tan, black, grey, white, off white, brown and navy blue. Non-neutral colors would be all other colors.
- Just as an example this spring my mantle colors of choice were brown, white, tan, pink and yellow, and orange.
RULES TO DECORATE YOUR MANTLE LIKE A PRO
Utilize these three rules in your mantle decorating process:
Create Layers
- Create Layers in your mantle design with the three different layers (described below) that vary in heights, weight, and color.
- The three different layers I will refer to as the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary layers. These are more often terms referred to in art creation, but the same can be applied to mantle décor as it is a piece of art. (At least it will be when you are done with it.) 😊
- The primary layer would be the main focal point or the largest item. Often time referred to as an Anchor. This can be a mirror above the mantle or a large picture, etc. This will be your tallest and biggest item in your mantle decor.
- The secondary layer would be the next biggest/tallest item- these items usually go on the ends of the mantle to create balance on each end and to create movement from Primary layer to the Secondary layer. Sometimes this layer can also be placed in the center of the mantle with some designs.
- The tertiary layer is the last layer which is the space between the two mantle ends – sometimes referred to as the filler. Sometimes people like a lot of filler and then other prefer the less is better approach. Keep in mind this is your mantle at the end of the day and do what is more pleasing according to your style and preference. If you follow my tips your mantle should still look appealing either way.
Create Balance
2. Maintain a balance on the mantle. You don’t want you mantle to be heavy with big and bulky items on one side and have nothing on the other. Or have all your colored items on one side and all the neutrals on the other. Try to maintain that balance. A quick trick to deciding where items should go – place items where you think they will go and take a step back to look at the mantle straight on from a distance. If your attention goes to one side of the mantle and doesn’t flow to the other ends/opposite ends of the mantle try readjusting your design by varying up the height, layers, and color of your items.
Triangle of Movement
3. Establish a triangle of movement. If you are able to maintain the balance and create layers within your mantle of design this step should come naturally. You want your eyes to move down and across in triangle like shapes. This is really best explained via an image. See below a picture of my mantle:
My mantle design goes more in depth as I didn’t stop at the mantle. I continued down the fireplace and also decorated each end. You will see in this picture several different triangles. These are the different ways your eyes move when looking at this mantle creating movement within your mantle decor. I will break down each rule listed above and how it contributes to the overall design. This should help you understand the rules a little better and how to apply them to your mantle. If you still need more help see the link at the end of this post to an Amazon shopping cart to give you some additional mantle decor ideas.
Mantle Decor Brainstorming Process:
Pick a Theme and Style
- What season/ holiday am I decorating for? I picked to decorate this mantle for the Spring Season with Easter in mind. Doing this allows me to keep this mantle décor up all Spring without needing to change just because Easter is over. It doesn’t even need much tweaking which is a win for me!
- Try to pick a theme and style to go with the season/holiday you are decorating for. With knowing I am decorating for Spring and Easter I wanted to keep my mantle with Easter in mind but also suitable after Easter ended with minimal changes. I also wanted to keep in mind things I already had, so I wouldn’t need to re-purchase much. So, that lead me to pick the theme of bunnies and I did this in a Farmhouse Style.
Note: A Farmhouse style uses a mixture of items old and new, and creates a warm, cozy relaxing space. A lot of neutral colors are used in this type of style.
Pick Your Colors:
-With already knowing I want to do a spring and Easter theme in the Farmhouse style look I knew I needed to keep a lot of the color neutral. So, knowing my main decor item would be bunnies (which will be mostly all neutral colors) I needed to decide on a few (non-neutral) colors to give my mantle a little pop of color. What else goes with bunnies? Carrots! So that was my first color (non-neutral) of choice – Orange. Then of course flowers for spring – which you can literally find in any color you need, so I was set!
I already had several bunnies at home I could decorate my mantle with so that helps out with the décor budget. The bunnies I have all have pink in them so that was my secondary color and a really good color for spring. Yellow being another spring color was the final color of choice. These items I already had at home and didn’t need to re-purchase.
The only item I did purchase was the sheep flower holder in the center of my mantle. This is on the list I have a link to below. I am currently using it to hold orange fake flowers however I will be making this into a succulent plant holder (I will post this on another blog post- stay tuned).
Mantle Decor Layers
- The primary layers, or anchor, in this mantle will be the bigger items (the TV). To be 100% honest I would love to do something different then have a TV above my mantle but it really is the only good spot in my home for it and my other half does have some say in the TV placement. So that is just one thing I need to work with and plan for in my décor. If you also have a TV above your mantle it’s easy to work around and you can still do a lot with your mantle decor. Don’t let that deter you from having and gorgeous mantle space.
- The secondary layer, or the weight, would be the yellow flowers in the pot, the bunnies on either end of the mantle and the white lantern in the bottom corner.
- The tertiary layer, or filler, would be everything else- the bunny gnomes (which I handmade and you can also with this how to guide – HERE ), the signs and the smaller bunnies.
Maintaining the Balance
Now that you have all your items and determined what Layer they fall under you will want to vary them up when placing them on your mantle. Don’t put all your secondary layers (weight) on one side of the mantle try to vary it up and distribute different sized items throughout your mantle space.
Your primary layer will be the biggest item and the main focal point. So that will go in the center, above the mantle. You will then take your secondary items and place them in each of the corners/ends of your mantle. You can also place the secondary items in the center of the mantle – choice is yours and depends on what look you want. If you opt to place the secondary items in the center of your mantle you will be working from the center out, so the tertiary layer will be on either side of the secondary layer.
In my case I have 4 corners. If you are not decorating the floor space of your fireplace mantle then you will only have two corners. You will then take your filler and place your filler items around your primary (anchor) and secondary layers (weight). It’s okay to overlap layers this adds dimension and depth and creates more eye movement. Again, you can have as much filler or as little filler as you like and still decorate a mantle that looks and feels like a pro did it!
KEEP THE MOVEMENT
You can see in the first image how I created movement within my fireplace mantle décor. I used the size, shape, color and textures of the items to create triangle movements within my mantle design. Be aware of how big each item is and how big they are in relation to each other. Eye movement will occur naturally if you follow the above-mentioned steps above. Just remember vary the layers and colors/ textures of each item throughout your mantle.
Now for the best part. Since you have now learned how to decorate your mantle like a pro, I put a list together on Amazon below- just click on Mantle Decor Ideas (where underlined and in black). This will give you a great starting point and some ideas on how to decorate your mantle.
Mantle Decor Ideas
Here is a link to also view the Free Printable – Mantle Decor Cheat Sheet.
