Rustic Winter Mantel

I have to admit that Winter is not my favorite season. However, even I can see the beauty in winter. It comes on an early morning when the snow is shimmering in the sunlight and it looks like glitter is scattered over everything. Or when the trees are covered in hoarfrost, making everything look like a winter wonderland set against the purple and blue horizon. Or seeing a red cardinal whose color pops against the white snow and natural colors of the bare trees. So yes, it is beautiful at times but why does it have to be so cold!! I was inspired by some of that natural beauty when decorating our rustic winter mantel.

Since there is not a lot of color going on outside in the winter, I thought that would be a great way to decorate inside too. I went with more neutral colors…whites, grays and browns.

The chalkboard saying was one that I found on the internet a while ago, but when I went to track down the owner of the design, I could not find one. It is the perfect saying for a rustic winter mantel because it is COLD outside! Here is a tutorial on how to make the chalkboards that are seen on my mantels, if you are interested.

Isn’t this little tree so cute? I think it is still okay to decorate with trees and garland after Christmas. We still have some lighted garland and little trees around. I just took off the Christmas decorations from them and they make great winter decor!

The awesome snowshoes on the mantel were a homemade Christmas gift to me from my step dad. He actually hand strung them which I am sure took forever! They are a priceless gift to me because of the time and effort he put into them. Unfortunately, we have not taken the time to use them for their intended use yet, but I like to let him know that they are getting great use as decoration! 🙂

The sweater vase was an easy DIY project that I made out of an old sweater. I just measured the size of the vase and cut the sweater to that size. Then using yarn, stitched together the back so it fit snugly around the vase. The bottom edge is unfinished so I just hot glued it to the bottom of the vase the first time I used it. I did not have to do that this time though because the leftover hot glue on the sweater kinda holds it’s shape so I can just set it down now and the edges stay under the vase.

The backdrop for the whole mantel is just a bunch of pallet boards that Mr. Wonderful attached to some crossbars on the back. It makes a great backdrop and we have used it for many of our mantels, like this one and this one.

This flip banner is one that I initially made for our Thanksgiving Mantel, then also used again on our Christmas mantel. Here is a tutorial on how to put it together. This is just another way that shows how versatile it can be.

I made these snowflakes out of an old book. Using a dab of hot glue in the center, I attached them to the burlap. I still wanted the edges to stick out a bit, giving them more of a 3D look.

I also used some snowflakes on my easy snowflake tree, another cute idea for a winter decoration. Check out the tutorial for that to see how I made the snowflakes.

The pillows were either bought from Hobby Lobby (the hello pillow and the sweater pillow) or made with fabric that I bought from there (the plaid pillow). I love this plaid fabric.

I continued the color theme to the pillows on this couch. The butterfly pillow and the fabric for the patterned pillow are also from Hobby Lobby. The white linen pillow covers are from Ikea and I made the sweater lumbar pillow cover from a sweater dress. 🙂

I am loving the neutral color theme of the living room like this. Even though there is not a lot of color going on, just like outside, there is still beauty in it.