Asymmetrical Christmas Mantel And How To Hang Garland On A Mantel
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Oh my mantel…the thing I change the most in my house. And my indecisiveness gets worse when decorating my mantel for Christmas. I also just realized I haven’t done just a Christmas mantel post in a while (have I ever?). I usually just include him in one of my Christmas home tour posts.
You can see last year’s Christmas tour here and don’t you fret, a new Christmas blog hop is coming in a few weeks. You can all sleep better tonight knowing this.
I gave our fireplace a mini makeover last year and it might be my favorite project I have done in this house. Decorating our fireplace for Christmas is so much more fun when you love your fireplace.
I also need to preface this post with a warning. If you need symmetry in your life, this mantel might not be your favorite. You can also just add more garland to your mantel on the other side to make it symmetrical if that will help you sleep better at night too.
My husband hates this mantel. He needs symmetry in his life. He keeps asking me when I am going to finish this mantel. I told him I’ll finish it on December 26th.
I used the same garland this year as I did last year on my mantel. I did a faux Christmas garland round up post a few weeks ago if you are on the hunt for some affordable fake garland.
The garland on my mantel is one of my favorites. I got it at Hobby Lobby and I think they have it available every Christmas. For the price, it is a good one. I love that it’s full and has some eucalyptus and red berries.
You can also pop off the berries if red isn’t your thing.
For my mantel, I used two strands of garland. For reference, my mantel is about 7 feet wide. It is a surprisingly long mantel.
How to hang garland on your mantel
As I knew I would, I forgot to take pictures as I was hanging the garland so I’ll try to walk you through this after the fact.
Here’s my little trick to hang this garland to get the “swooping over” effect. I’m not sure if that is the correct term but you get what I am saying. We have these small c-hooks screwed into the bottom of our mantel. You can also use command hooks for this. Just make sure you get the right hooks for the weight of your garland.
I took the first garland and attached the end of that garland to one of the hooks as such
I then swooped it over to the end of the mantel and attached the other end of the garland to the c-hook hanging out on that side.
(Essentially this first strand of garland just made the swoop)
I then added a command hook to the corner of the top of my mantel
I then hung my second garland on that command hook and let about 3/4 of it hang down off the mantel. The other 1/4 of garland, I just laid on my swoop (if that makes sense).
I then added some magnolia leaves I had on hand to the corner of the mantel to hide the command hook and fill in that spaces some. It was looking a tad bit bald
And done. You got yourself a swoop.
I originally had battery operated mini globe lights on the garland and I loved the look of them. I have this garland lit whenever I am home and I wasn’t interested in going thru 5 packs of batteries this month so I switched out my globe lights for good old faithful plug in lights.
Since I had the garland swooping down and not lying on my mantel I was able to decorate the top of my mantel…which can be fun and painful at the same time when you are as indecisive as I am.
I found this cute gold deer at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago and he told me to buy him…so I did. The “Beauty and the Beast” (as my daughter calls it) glass cloche was an IKEA find from last year. I put a battery operated candle in there for some extra glow.
The other side got some trees and a small hurricane with beads coming out of it. Both the trees and tortoise candle holder are old but I’ll try to link similar below.
I also used the same garland I did from last year on my mirror. I just folded it in half and used hair clips to clip the garland right on my mirror.
I also found those stockings at Hobby Lobby this year and they are so cute and they were $5 (yep, that is what I said!) If you have a Hobby Lobby near you, I would be making a trip soon.
I did not get the dog at Hobby Lobby. I turned that fire on and boom…she was standing there within 3 seconds of that fire turning on.
If you have been hanging out here for a hot minute then you know those sconces are fake. Well, they are real sconces but I just threw a battery operated candle in there to pretend like there is a light. No wiring needed. You can see more of that trick here.
And that’s it. I tried to not overthink it this year. And that is how I am approaching Christmas this year. Who is with me??
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If you want more Christmas decor ideas:
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Christmas Home Tour (Walking In A Winter Wonderland Blog Hop)
Make Your Home Smell Like Christmas
