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bottle brush trees, Christmas, Christmas decorations, Christmas mantle, Christmas mantle decor, crafts, diy Christmas trees, fireplace mantle decorations, Homegoods, mantle decor ideas, Winter Wonderland mantle
It’s our first Christmas in our new home. I’ve been excited to decorate it for the holidays since January. You can’t blame me, I finally have the fireplace and mantle I’ve been waiting for, and couldn’t wait to deck the halls! I had a very romantic idea in my head, and here’s how I made it happen.
1/2 Homegoods + 1/2 Craftastic = walkin’ in a winter wonderland
First things first. I thought of my theme, Winter Wonderland, and knew I was going for a white, rose gold, metallic and neutral look. I wanted a “snow” covered mantle, lit up with white lights, littered with woodland critters, and lined with trees of all media and heights. After I had the vision, it was time to execute.
I tried some online shopping for some of the mantle elements, but found it difficult to imagine how the items would fit and look together. Not being able to see and touch the items bothered me so it was off to the retail stores.
I scoped out Meijer, Kohl’s and finally Homegoods and Joann’s Fabric for specific decor like bottle brush trees, woodland critters, lights and statement pieces like the wreath and cut-out wooden “Believe” script sign.
Here’s my Homegoods haul, a few of the trees sadly didn’t make the final cut. I bought the white faux fur blanket in hopes it would be my mantle “snow”, but had to return the item because it was way too heavy and slipped right off. With the right weighted material a faux fur mantle dressing would look gorgeous! I hope someone makes it happen, I’d love to see the result.
Here’s a closed look at the mantle items, and there’s a nice crackling fire going on.
Once I had my mantle items I knew I needed a classy, metallic wreath. Sounds like an oxymoron right? Yes, this was my perfect focal point. I centered and hung it on the mirror with a wreath suction cup hanger from Ace Hardware. Yes, they make specific wreath hooks with a suction cup on them to hang your wreath on glass.
Gorgeous metallic wreath from Homegoods.
Now, I bought a lot of trees in various medias and sizes, but knew I wanted some oversized ones for the hearth. The large trees at Homegoods were out of budget ranging from $80-$100+. I wasn’t willing to spend half my budget on one items, so I did some craft research and looked up Christmas trer cone templates online, watched a few YouTube tutorials, and gathered my supplies. I used felt in various colors because it’s so easy to work with and hot glue loves it. I also had a vintage chenille fabric in white a dear friend had gifted me for a birthday long ago. I was elated her thoughtful gift was being used for such a fun and beautiful reason, and knew she would approve. See how cute it turned out?
The trees were made out of leftover cardboard I saved from a rug I got at Target. My hoarding tendencies got the best of me when I saw that 8×10 piece of cardboard they rolled the rug up in, and I knew one day it would come in handy! I’m so glad I actually used it up, can you tell??!
Some tree cones forms I made with thin cardboard and duct tape
Forming the cones was a pain in the butt. That’s right, it took me an awful long time to get the shape right, tape it down, and keep it from popping open. Be generous with the duct tape, and once you have your form shaped, tape it all the way around the perimeter of the cone to ensure it doesn’t pop open in the middle of the night, and give you a quite a fright! Yeah, that happened too. Cutting out all those felt leaves was no field day either. Make sure you have some sharp shears, or don’t even attempt, you’ll go nuts. It took me two days and a bunch of hours to finish two large trees and 9 smaller ones. I spent the weekend locked away crafting and it was therapeutic besides the occasional burning of one’s finger with hot glue, or pricking myself with a needle during the snow ball making.
Speaking of snow balls, this was one of my favorite parts of the process sans battle wounds. I really liked rolling up the cotton balls to form different sized balls, and string them on fishing line with a needle was pretty fun. Just tie a loose knot, string a cotton ball, leave some space and repeat. Vary the snow ball sizes, spacing if the balls, and length of the fishing line to get the best look, you don’t want them too uniform. USe clear tape to attach them in a zip zag pattern on the ceiling. By doing this you will get various perspective and depth to make the scene look more dimensional!
The “falling snow” close up. I ended up taking off the multi-colored leds on the sign, and wrapping them around the fabric trees on the hearth.
And that’s how I made my magical Winter Wonderland mantle. Thanks for reading and happy holidays to you and yours!
Have yourself a merry little Christmas.
I Don't Like Kimchi 