Another way to carry Christmas through out a room is to decorate mantels and various pieces for furniture. This blog will address mantels. Typically, I start with a 9 foot piece of garland. I light it with one string of 50 lights. I choose either clear lights which go with anything or colored lights depending on the color scheme. One of my favorite colored light sets is a set with clear pink lights, frosted cream, and clear white lights on one string. If you shop around you can find all kinds of light sets, some very traditional and some are quite outrageous. Here are some different mantels I decorated. Most of the time they carried through the theme I had on the tree in the same room. Some though were mantels in a Bed and Breakfast and there was no tree in the bedroom suites. This was a way to bring Christmas into the guest bedrooms.
This mantel has a beautiful gold edged mirror above it. The mirror is large enough and sturdy enough to support an arrangement of it's own. For this mantel and swag, a green American fir 9 foot evergreen garland was used. On the mantel it was stretched across and the ends brought back into the front giving it a much thicker look. Lights were laces through the garland (try to hide any wires). Velvet two tone roses were used, along with berries, fern and other small floral fillers. Seven candles sticks were set on the mantel with candles that were a burgundy color to match the roses. Burgundy glass balls that matched those hung on the tree were placed around the candles. For the swag on the mirror. The greenery was attached at both ends and draped low in the middle. Two angels that matched those in the tree were placed on each side. The roses and florals were then placed in between the angels. As you can guess, this arrangement matched the Christmas tree placed in the room.
This mantel has a very simple "Traditional" look. A piece of garland is laid over the top of the mantel. Then a grape vine wreath is taken apart, opened up, and placed standing in the middle. Small pieces are laid through the rest going to either side. Eucalyptus and raffia, as well as a plaid ribbon is placed through the garland stretching out across the mantel. Red Berries and Red Birds are the last items to go into the arrangement. It's quite simple and brought the same Christmas theme as the tree to another part of the room. I will show the matching tree in up coming blogs.
This mantel is quite old and as you can see at one time it had a mirror between the bottom shelf and the top shelf. The mirror had been broken and then removed. We covered a board with a piece of black material so that any thing placed on the bottom shelf would show up. The colors in this theme are gold and silver. On the top shelf a miniature two foot tree was placed and decorated. One large bow and an assortment of little bows in gold and silver are placed all over the tree. A piece of garland extends across the top and the same bows and ornaments adorn the garland also. The tree that matches is seen on the left. On the right a piece of garland extends down the side of the mantel to the floor. A Gold and Silver bare tree sits in front. Lastly, a two foot paper mache goose sits on the bottom shelf of the mantel to complete the look. This had a "Traditional" look with the colors of gold and silver. It's traditional and elegant.
I have other mantels to show, so be sure to watch for upcoming blogs about more mantels. Again, thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment