Styling a mantel

I love a good mantel. There are so many ways you can style it, but sometimes it can be tricky. What I've learned about styling a good mantel was through lots of trial and error. If I can do it, so can you! I still swap pieces in and out until I find what I like best. I am a huge fan of layering. You'll notice in all of my photos there is one staple piece and that's the old window. I layer on top of that & I always like to add one or 2 things with a little height on either side of it. Then I fill in the rest with what feels good to me.

Just earlier today, my mantel looked like the photo above... to me something was missing and I just wasn't feeling it so I moved some things around. I also added and removed some things. To me this didn't feel as lively as I wanted it to. So here is where trial and error come in. I played around with it until I came up with the photo below.

I added the berries on top of the window. Took out the tiny houses and moved the 2 trees over to frame the photo. That photo is actually a page out of the newest Magnolia Journal. I have found that some of my magazines have better images than anything I could find in a store. And they are super easy to change when its time to switch up your mantel.

Simple can be pretty too. This was a spring mantel that I did. I wanted to keep everything light, airy and fresh. I felt like less was better for this time of year. 

For this spring mantel I traded out the signs and added an old alarm clock and layered a wire bird cage on top of the old window to give it some depth.

You can style your mantel any which way you choose. Do what feels good to you and your home and you can't go wrong.