Fireplace Mantel Styling Made Easy + Sources For All Of It!

Dear Laurel,

I’ve been enjoying your England posts and I noticed a few lovely fireplace mantels. I was wondering if you could go over fireplace mantel styling. Some of the items are terrific but I don’t know where to get them or what sizes will work.

Fiktish Usreader

Hi Guys,

First of all, before I get into the fireplace mantel styling– Thank you for all of your sweet comments and well-wishes the other day. Here’s what happened:

Minutes after I published the last post, out of the blue, I came down with a horrible fever… and all of the rest… After 15 hours of feeling super terrible, my sister talked me into going to the ER, so I called an Uber to drive me 500 feet. No joke, but I could barely stand, much less walk that distance.

I thought it might be the flu, but fortunately, it’s not. That’s the good news. My tests indicated that it is a bacterial infection and I’m on an anti-biotic. So, it’s good that I went because that’s not a good thing to mess around with if it’s causing a high fever. I’ve been resting and listening to a lot of opera. Very healing and feeling better but am running out of steam, now.

So, if my writing is a little lame, hopefully all of the goodies I’ve spent the day hunting down, will make up for it.

There are seven mantels that have been published here in the last couple of years and I did my best to copy everything on them and then some.

And to make it a little easier, especially for folks on their cell phones, I made two widgets of fireplace mantel styling.

One thing, I’m not going to be able to tell you is exactly how to arrange what you have. I can’t because there are too many variables. But please remember that it’s not rocket science. And I don’t believe in formulas so much for these things.

Plus, I’m going to tell you what to get in a bit. Of course, it’s not an exhaustive list and you might not like any of them. But hopefully, at least one mantel will resonate with you; or at least get you started with some great ideas. They are all different from each other.

And even if you don’t have a fireplace or a mantel, mantels are a lot like console tables, bookshelves and cabinets that are 54″ or less. So, even if you don’t have a fireplace mantel, you may very well have another horizontal surface, like my bookcase, for example.

However, there are a few basic rules for fireplace mantel styling.

• Avoid too many pairs. In fact, usually, it’s pretty much only one pair on the mantel and then if you have a pair of sconces, that is about all. That is totally matching pairs. Usually.
• Avoid over crowding, but do some layering if possible.
• Mantels are a great place to display a collection of ONE THING, but variations of that one thing.
• Aim for a balance of heights. Low, medium and high. You may need to play around with this.
• Like art, do a little sketch of what you are looking for. That way you’ll know if you’ll need the 7″ foo dogs are the 11″ foo dogs.
• Vases and jars can usually be a couple of inches deeper in diameter than the mantel shelf.
• Symmetrical arrangements are most pleasing but that doesn’t mean identical on each side. That ties into too many pairs!
• Tie in the mantel decor to the rest of the space. If the rest of the room is spare, then the mantel should be too. Maximalists know what to do already. :]
• You can never go wrong with a little gold and a little black.
• Mantels in your public spaces are not the best spot to display family photos. Of course, it’s your home and you can do whatever you wish. :] I don’t judge. Honestly. Not about that, anyway. ;]

The first mantel is just too lovely by the wonderful Loi Thai of Tone on Tone. Everything he touches is absolutely perfect. Please also follow Loi on insta.

and me too, if you aren’t already.

Oh, a word about the art in the images and in the widgets.

And it’s just because we go through this every time I post art, which is pretty often. I cannot put art in a widget that came from your local high school, thrift shop, tag sale, child, aunt, sister…

However, I respect that those of you who want to support your local communities and artists, that is a wonderful thing. And in that case, you can use the art for demonstration and inspiration purposes only.

Next we have the fabulous stylings of Maura Endres. Please be sure to follow her on instagram.

And for more of Maura’s fabulous home, please click here.

Peter Benson Miller

Please click the link to see the rest of his beautiful place. He collects these gorgeous ceramics from the 1920s made by Constance Spry. I have a lot of her pieces in the widget and some other similar pieces that could mix well with it. There’s enough for two mantels!

Jessika Goranson – photo Patrick Cline.

This fireplace mantel styling is about as perfect as can possibly be, in every way!

And below is our first widget. Please note that I cannot control what order things appear. In fact, every time you refresh the page, it’ll mix things up again. But it’s all there.  Hopefully, it won’t be too confusing.

To find out more about any of the items, just click on the image, and you will be taken to the source.

Moving on to the next set of mantels.

This is a fabulous mantel by Tina of The Enchanted Home. Did you know that she has a fabulous online shop? Well, she does and it’s one of the 23 new sources that is coming out in Laurel’s Rolodex FOURTH EDITION in one week.

If you purchase a rolodex before then, you will still get the updated one. But please remember that the price is going up on November 13th.

Sorry, but I have to get those reminders out there.

However, is this not also perfect? As you can see from this and the white ceramic mantel, picking just one kind of item and doing variations on that theme is a very effective solution for a gorgeous fireplace mantel.

photo by me

This you may recall is a fantastic fireplace mantel from Harriet and Anthony Sykes’ home in Dorset that I was privileged to visit about 3 weeks ago.

I had a lot of fun and wait until you see the two clocks that I found! I also selected a number of awesome porcelain figurines.

photo by me

And of course, Ben Pentreath’s home, also in Dorset, that I also visited.

And there are Staffordshire Dogs as well. All different sizes. OH! I found Ben’s exact dogs at 1st Dibs. But they are $1,200! I think the most expensive pair in the widget is about $400. And they are just as nice.

This is an old photo of Ben’s mantel before the room was painted pink. And as you can see, it is all dressed up for the holidays. I don’t think that one has to alter their mantel a lot. Just fit in some lovely greens between the objects.

Or maybe take them off first and then put back. Or of course, you can do something altogether different, but you don’t have to.

For more fireplace mantel styling ideas, please click here and here.

xo,

Oh, I almost forgot! But One King’s Lane is offering 20% off of their entire collection of art, but it’s ending tonight. I believe that it began on Monday, but I only found out about it yesterday. But please click here, if you’re interested.