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Staging the Christmas Mantel Four Guidelines

No matter where you live, a fireplace is an asset.

Is yours staged for the season? Make it the rooms focal point and make it reflect the tone of the season.

Heres my simple formula for staging a mantel that calls attention to the fireplace without taking over the whole room.

One: Set the stage so people touring your home immediately imagine themselves enjoying the fireplace.

I love to see a table and chairs in front of the fireplace, as though this were the perfect spot for a romantic meal.

Or you can position a loveseat or couch facing the fireplace. If a couch takes up too much room, place chairs flanking the hearth either facing outward or towards the fire.

Two. Dont let the black hole of the firebox be the black hole in the room. You can create distractions on either side of the opening that bring the area to life.

I made a pyramid shape tree of grapevines wrapped around an inverted wire tomato cage topped with a golden angel. On the other side of the hearth, I added a shabby Rudolph planter who makes an appearance at our house every year.

Greenery in vessels is always a winner for softening the dark hole of the fireplace. Other seasonal props you might have available are vintage toys, wrapped gifts, a basket or bucket of kindling or pinecones, a rack of logs ready to burn, or a fancy screen. Just be certain to place your décor so it does not pose a fire hazard.

Three: Hit all the bumpers. Combine glitzy props with natural elements. This is your chance to expand the appeal of your home to more than one demographic group. Some of your elements will be nostalgic and some will be trendy. Some will be high end style and some will be dollar store cheesey. This is the one time of the year when (almost) anything goes. You can tone things down again in January.

Four: Repeat colors and shapes. Start with some kind of color scheme, and everything will flow. In this room, I veered towards the browns and greens plus white and silver. You cant go wrong there. I also repeated the conical shapes of evergreens as well as the sphere shapes of ornaments and beads.

If you follow these simple guidelines, I know youll stage a fireplace that helps sell you home. Be sure to read my post, Seven Steps to a Gorgeous Fireplace Mantel from two Christmases ago! And for more ways to prep your home for the real estate market, be sure to download my $4.99 eBooks.

Staging the Christmas Mantel Four Guidelines

The ABCs of Staging a Seasonal Mantel

A mantel thats decorated for the season gives a message to buyers that your home is getting the attention it deserves.

And a little attention on your part goes a long way. A few new props that indicate the season, or a different floral arrangement might be all you need to make your mantel look current.

One of the easiest ways to stage a mantel is to start with a painting.

A landscape painting is an especially good choice, because landscapes have a way of opening up a space. If the landscape showcases the local scenery, so much the better.

To stage this fireplace mantel for the autumn season, I choose a painting I bought at a garage sale. Since its an autumn scene, Im already half way to the look I want.

My next step was to hunt for objects that would pick up the colors in the painting. I also wanted to include a variety of textures, of materials, and of shapes.

There are plenty of soft and pleasing colors in this autumnal scene. I decided to bring out the greens and oranges with the props I chose, because those seemed the most autumnal. The walls in this room were a soft yellow, an ideal background for the painting.

Still life paintings and abstract art are also excellent choices for home staging, providing they are not too distracting or controversial.

I love the shape of this planter, and I love the reflective glaze. The color is perfect so I knew Id use it on the mantel. Chances are that you already own the objects you need to stage a mantel in your own home. They should not be too small, too valuable, or too personal.

Every home stager keeps an assortment of things like silks, and floral foam, and sheet moss or spaghnam moss to cover up the foam. I pulled out my faux Chinese lantern silks because I knew I didnt want to limit the color palette to greens.

The wire stems on these silks were longer than I wanted them to be, but instead of cutting them off, I bent them back a few times. Now, if I need them long again, I just need to bend the stems straight.

Even though the flowers are fake, I like to concentrate on flowers that are actually in season, the way I chose alliums and grass for staging this springtime mantel. You can read my suggestions for staging a summertime fireplace here.

What fall arrangement is complete without seasonal gourds or pumpkins?

My green gourds are from the dollar store. I used them on a mantel last fall and even after being stored in my garden shed all year, theyre in like-new condition.

I knew if I needed more things than what I had on hand, I could scavenge in my own neighborhood or backyard for pine cones, twigs, dried flowers, and even rocks.

And theres always the recycling bin for interesting cheap staging props that can be painted or otherwise disguised.

I used a Michaels coupon to purchase the garland of berries, even though I wasnt sure how I would be using a string of berries.

I wanted something metallic and something with a patina, so this candle holder came out of the prop closet.

I also wanted some clear glass, so I brought out some vases and chimneys, not sure which ones I would use. I ended up setting this glass vase on top of the candle pedestal to give it height. Often, wide glass vases can look like hurricane chimneys but cost less and are not so fragile.

I wasnt pleased with this, my first attempt. The lineup of "marching gourds" looked too sterile, so I clustered them for the more interesting look you see in the top photo.

Every tablescape or mantel arrangement calls for some fooling around before it all falls into place. So, gather your props of the season and see what you can create to bring your own mantel to life.

My $4.99 eBook, DIY Home Staging Tips to Sell Your Home Fast and For Top Dollar gives formulas for decorating mantels, as well as guidelines for arranging furniture, choosing paint colors, and all the other decisions youll make to stage your own home.

The ABCs of Staging a Seasonal Mantel

Seven Steps to a Gorgeous Fireplace Mantel

Christmas and fireplace mantels are a tight twosome. With or without the traditional hung stockings, you can make your mantel the nostalgic and charming focal point of the room.

Because nostalgia and charm resonate with home buyers.

Here’s what I did to dress for the season a driftwood mantel on a rugged stone fireplace that needs to be the focal point of this family room.

Step 1. Start with an Idea

Your idea might be a particular color scheme or a specific topic.

When it comes to colors and style, at holiday time you have an excuse to go glitzy or dramatic.

For example, metallics and saturated colors that you might normally avoid while staging your home, are perfect for holiday décor.

On the other hand, monotone color schemes and minimalistic styling can be smashingly elegant. It’s one way to simplify your life, because putting decorations up at the start of the season takes time, and then taking them down and storing them away takes time again in January. Keep it simple.

For this mantel I decided to concentrate on traditional reds and greens for my color theme. My topic theme was nature, because this house sits on a densely wooded lot. In fact, all the greenery came from the property.

Some examples of specific topics would be themes like antique toys, Mercury glass, shabby chic angel ornaments, ceramic animals, or the classic nativity crèche. If your home is for sale, you might want to choose a theme that accentuates whats special about the house or the room.

Step 2. Go Collecting

This garland has plenty of texture, but
the colors keep it simple.

If you are undecided about an idea to tie your mantel decorations together, begin with step two. Shop your home and see what elements you have available. Use your imagination to repurpose items. An inverted vase can become a pedestal. A necklace can become a swag. Books can become wrapped gifts.

Don’t ignore what’s growing in your vicinity (pinecones, greenery, logs, seed pods, bare branches…) as well as what you’ve tucked away in closets and other storage areas like the garage, garden shed or storage building.

Remember that paint will transform almost anything into what your color scheme calls for. That old plastic flower pot can look like granite, and those thrift store vases can look like silver or gold once they are spray painted.

Step 3. Go Shopping

This step isn’t always necessary. You may have all the things you need on hand. And if you are like many crafters or budget decorators, you’ve already scooped up Christmas decorations at summer garage sales and last year’s post-holiday sales.

Your materials should include some items with different textures, sizes, and materials. For example, don’t make everything transparent or everything solid. Instead, include some of both. Include dull surfaces and glossy surfaces, large forms and smaller shapes, some round objects and some hard edge objects.

Step 4. Set up Your Backdrop

It’s best to begin with a clean slate. So, remove whatever is on the mantel and give yourself room to work in front of the fireplace. Spread out the possible objects you’ve collected.

Large magnolia leaves and sprigs of
variegated holly brought some weight
to one end of the mantel

Next, place one large object as the background for the mantel grouping. You will be surprised what a difference this makes. It gets you off to a great start.

I hung a round wreath of artificial red berries on the chimney breast to get my arrangement going. You could use a mirror, an empty frame, a painting like I did for the autumn mantel I blogged about, or something vintage like shutters or a door like I’ve see Angela at Cottage Magpie do when she stages a mantel.

Step 5. Balance the Weight

I often begin by hanging or draping something the length of the mantel. This is another way of unifying and balancing the grouping that’s to come.

On the driftwood mantel, I strung the garland that I purchased at Michaels. I fell for it the moment I saw it. I adore the warm colors and woodsy feel to it.

I placed one item – the red berry tree – on one end of the mantel and some oversized greenery at the opposite end. Now I had some balance and I could fill in with smaller items.

6. Repeat the Colors

Plenty of greenery softened the look of the stone and unified my arrangement.

I added a string of glistening red berries to the center of the mantel and some more springs of greenery that included real red berries. I wasn’t about to complicate things with too many colors since I was going for tradition and natural simplicity.

Step 7. Add some details

To tie the brown garland into the green arrangements above it, I wove some evergreen sprigs into the chain. That’s all it took to finish the entire mantel.

Evergreen sprigs tucked into the swag and more red berries were part of the finishing touches.

In the staged home, too many details will draw attention to the mantel itself, instead of the mantel calling attention to your selling point – the fireplace. Keeping decorations simple saves time, money and stress. When your home is on the market, you need easy and quick ways to add festive touches.

I write about mantel décor -- as well as what else you need to know about home staging -- in my $4.99 eBook, DIY Home Staging Tips to Sell Your Home Fast and For Top Dollar. You can download the book now and start learning how to attract buyers to your property.

Seven Steps to a Gorgeous Fireplace Mantel