Decorating a Fireplace Mantel for Winter in 6 Simple Steps
Let’s be real — going back to normal life after the holidays is always a bit rough. Personally, I find that setting up my winter decor helps cheer me up a bit. Today, I’m going to talk about decorating a fireplace mantel for winter in just six simple steps!
For centuries, the hearth of a fireplace has served as the heart of the home, where people gather for community and warmth. From an aesthetic perspective, that makes it a natural focal point for home decor.
Additionally, fireplaces are generally utilized most in winter. That makes decorating your fireplace mantel specifically for winter a great way to tap into the vibes of the season and make your space feel cozy.
In this post, I’ll walk through six steps on how you can decorate your fireplace mantel to light up your home this winter. If you don’t have a mantel, you can take advantage of other opportunities to create a similar feel with your winter decor. For example, you could replicate this effect using a table or chest of drawers. Any flat surface that is relatively long and narrow should work.
Putting together a winter-themed fireplace mantel is a great way to reflect the theme of the season and tie together the rest of your home decor.
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How to Decorate a Fireplace Mantel for Winter
Let’s walk through the six steps to decorating a fireplace mantel for winter.
1. Identify which Christmas decorations you can reuse for your winter mantel
If you currently have Christmas decor displayed on your mantel (or elsewhere), you can reuse some, but not all of it. Here are my personal opinions on what is appropriate for a winter-themed fireplace mantel.
Christmas decor items that are okay to reuse for your winter mantel
- Mini trees (undecorated except for lights)
- Twinkly lights/candles
- Mini houses/villages
- Natural elements like greenery or pine cones
Christmas decor items that are not okay to reuse for your winter mantel
- Stockings
- Ornaments
- Presents
- Anything related to Santa
- Anything with the color red
- Anything with Christmas sayings or quotes
Hopefully, you get the picture. If something could either be associated with Christmas or winter, it’s fine to reuse it for your winter mantel decor. Otherwise, put it away and save it for next Christmas.
2. Pick a color scheme for your mantel
Once you’ve decided on which Christmas decor you can reuse for your winter mantel, it’s time to pick a color scheme. When deciding on colors, the world is your oyster (apart from the color red — again, my personal opinion is that red just screams Christmas when paired with wintery elements).
In general, I enjoy decorating with a lot of neutrals. Especially in winter, this tends to work well. While you can use brighter colors, they aren’t as commonly found in nature around this time of year. For the most natural look, I recommend sticking to more muted colors.
Especially if you’re going for a winter wonderland effect, incorporating lots of white is a great way to accomplish this with your mantel.
My usual color scheme is white with gold accents, and for my winter mantel, I like to add brown accents as well. Although brown can be associated with the barrenness and cold that occurs in winter, it’s also a color that can be characterized with the flipside of that: winter’s coziness and warmth.
Green is another great choice for your fireplace mantel decor, especially if you enjoy using plants, winter trees, and greenery in your home. Particularly, darker shades of green work well for this season.
Varying shades of beige, tan, or grey are also popular choices for a winter color scheme, especially when paired with metallic accents. While I prefer gold accents as they’re part of my year-round decor, silver is a highly effective way to create winter wonderland vibes. Think, “silver white winters that melt into springs”….
3. Incorporate natural elements
The third step to decorating a fireplace mantel for winter is to incorporate natural elements.
If you look out your window in the winter, it may seem a little bleak. This can make incorporating natural elements seem a bit counterintuitive. While it’s true that you won’t find a great deal of life or color at this time of year, there’s beauty in sleeping nature, too.
Even if some of these natural winter elements look dead to you, strategically incorporating them will help add some life to your fireplace mantel. Here are a few examples of natural elements you can use.
Wood Accents
Wood accents such as twigs, branches, or stumps can be very effective for decorating your mantel. As mentioned previously, I love using brown as an accent color for my winter mantel. If you are going for a more rustic vibe, you can choose to make wood accents a primary focal point of your mantel.
Since I don’t have a particularly rustic design style, I use wood accents more sparingly. I found an arrangement of dried birch twigs on Amazon that I display in my year-round bud vases (The set of vases I got is no longer available but this set is almost exactly the same).
Pine Cones/Pine Cone Sprays
Pine cones or pine cone sprays are another fun and easy element to add to your winter fireplace mantel. They’re available at most home stores, craft stores, or online retailers. You can also collect your own from nature, if local laws permit and you’re willing to deal with the bugs!
Greenery/Garlands
Greenery and garlands are ideal elements to incorporate when decorating your fireplace mantel for winter.
I haven’t personally gotten into garlands or greenery, partly because I go for a more minimalist look and partly because there is no way my cat would leave it alone. However, using greenery on your fireplace mantel is a great way to bring a fresh feel to your hearth.
Including natural elements such as wood accents, pine cones, and greenery as you decorate your fireplace mantel for winter will help create an authentic, cozy look.
4. Add extra light to your fireplace mantel
Since winter is the darkest season, adding extra light to your fireplace mantel will help brighten your space.
Twinkly Lights
I already use battery-operated fairy lights for Christmas, but in winter I add a few more to our mantel. I decorate with both longer strands and shorter strands that are available on Amazon.
Pro tip: hide the battery packs behind your larger decor elements. Also, be sure to wait to add the twinkly lights until the very end, as you will likely end up rearranging your mantel a few times (more on that later).
Candles
In my post about decorating for Christmas on a budget, I mentioned the importance of using firelight. Flames bring both light and warmth to your home, which is especially appropriate for decorating your fireplace mantel!
Candles are an inexpensive way to light up your mantel. While I decorate with candles year-round, for my winter mantel I add a few extra. I use a mixture of pillar candles in vases, taper candles in candlestick holders, and mini votive candles in vases.
Lanterns
Lanterns are another creative element you can use to add some winter magic to your mantel. In addition to bringing more light, they serve as a fun and cozy decor element.
The one downside to lanterns is that they usually involve flameless candles, which I am somewhat picky about. To save time and money, I opted to stick with candles instead. If you’re committed to using a lantern on your mantel and you’re looking for a deal, stores like TJ Maxx are great places to shop! Pottery Barn also has some beautiful lanterns, although they’re quite pricey.
5. Add extra cozy to your fireplace mantel
The fifth step to decorating your mantel is to add some extra cozy elements. Here are a few ideas of things you can incorporate, in addition to lights and candles.
Books
I love decorating with books for a few reasons. First, they can be both beautiful and inexpensive, especially if you shop at used bookstores or Goodwill. Second, you can easily find options that complement your color scheme. And finally, they automatically give off a cozy feel and help visually tell the story of your home.
When decorating your fireplace mantel for winter, stack one to three books in your chosen color scheme, or place them on end — whichever looks best. You can place other decor elements on top of or next to your books.
Winter Cloche
Ever heard of a cloche? It’s simply a bell-shaped glass dome that can have both a functional and a decorative purpose. For a similar effect to a snow globe, with no shaking required you can purchase a winter cloche for your mantel or create your own.
Mini Houses/Village
Investing in a mini village is another fun way to style your mantel! Just ensure you steer clear of any sets that are too Christmassy.
Blankets
Although you can’t place blankets on your mantel itself, having them in a basket underneath helps tie together your hearth. Just ensure that your blankets remain within your color scheme. Our basket is from Target and my favorite oversized blanket is from Amazon.
Cozy Artwork/Framed Quotes
One of my favorite ways to decorate my mantel is by using a piece of artwork or a framed quote. You can go for a large print (such as an 18×24-inch size) and use it as the focal point or a smaller one (such as an 8×10- or 5×7-inch size) and use it as an accent.
I designed this piece of artwork for my mantel in Canva, printed it on cardstock, and placed it in a 5×7 gold frame. You can download the PDF here.
6. Maintain balance but not absolute symmetry when decorating your mantel
The first five steps to decorating a fireplace mantel for winter concern which elements to include as part of your decor, but the final step has to do with the exact placement of your items.
This step is key and perhaps the most important, because it’s quite difficult, but it can make or break your mantel. For years, I struggled with how to position my mantel decor, but I have discovered over time that the secret is to maintain balance, but not absolute symmetry.
Symmetry vs. Aysmmetry
Humans naturally gravitate toward symmetry. The eye thrives on natural focal points and wants to find order and harmony. For a perfectly symmetrical mantel, this would mean that your decor is either exactly centered or equally reflects itself on either side of the center.
While humans do gravitate toward some level of symmetry, asymmetry is key to creating visual interest and holding people’s attention. To avoid being overly simplistic, you want to avoid your mantel being too predictable.
There’s obviously a lot of flexibility in how much asymmetry you create. If you prefer your mantel more on the symmetrical side, you can place a larger element in the center with the same or slightly differing pieces on either side. For more asymmetry, choose one main item or cluster of items to be the primary focal point on one side and then add some other smaller items for balance on the other side.
Whatever you do, make sure that you commit to your chosen amount of symmetry. It’s better for your mantel to be perfectly symmetrical than to be slightly off and have people think it’s a mistake.
We have our sweetheart table sign from our wedding in the center of our fireplace mantel, which lends some natural symmetry. But I try to switch things up a bit on either side.
How to Position Your Mantel Decor
Should you have a mirror (as we do) or piece of artwork over your mantel, it may limit your ability to place taller elements in the center. If this is the case, start on one side of your fireplace mantel, and place the tallest elements toward the edge, framing whatever is hanging over your mantel with the heights of your decorative items.
Cluster elements in groups at each edge and work your way inward toward the center. Begin with whatever items take up the most space, and fill in any gaps with smaller items and twinkly lights.
If you don’t have anything hanging over your mantel, you can play around more with different heights and what looks best.
Review and Revise Your Mantel
Don’t be discouraged if you don’t nail the perfect layout right away — interior design is usually less about inspiration and more about trial and error. You will likely need to move things around a few times, and add or remove elements if something isn’t working.
To assess your progress, take a few steps back and ask yourself a few questions:
- Do the colors balance?
- Does the overall shape (positioning, number, and groups of your elements) balance?
- Does the lighting balance?
It’s also usually helpful to get an outside perspective besides your own. If the answer to any of these questions is no, then revise accordingly. Again, your goal is to create asymmetry while maintaining visual order and harmony.
Those are my six steps for decorating a fireplace mantel for winter! By adding some natural wintery elements, light, and coziness to your fireplace mantel and striking the right balance with placement, you can bring some extra warmth to your home this season.
The final and most important thing to keep in mind when decorating your winter mantel is to ensure that it brings YOU joy. While it’s good to abide by a few design principles, at the end of the day, don’t worry too much about what other people think.
Interior designer Bunny Williams has been credited with this quote, which I think captures the heart of what decorating your mantel should be about: “If you love something it will work. That’s the only real rule.”
