Styling a French country mantel with dark blue colors to go with jewel-tone colored needlepoint Christmas stockings took several makeovers.
Arranging, re-arranging, adding to, taking away, repeatedly, over several days before this year's mantel came together and made my eyes clap their hands.
The final design includes a custom-printed framed inspirational Christmas quote. A post is in the works to explain how to create the custom quote.
F R E N C H C O U N T R Y
C H R I S T M A S M A N T E L
with dark blues
Beautiful jewel-toned needlepoint Christmas stockings were the starting point for this year's mantel decorations. I bought one of the stockings and a matching throw pillow over twenty years ago at a small shop owned by my sister in Maine.
A close friend who traveled with me to Maine one fall to see the changing leaves bought one of the special stockings also. I bought her stocking from her family in an estate sale after she died a few years later.
Whenever I pull out my Christmas decor, I always remember my dear friend. Each December, we and several other friends traveled to Salado, Texas on a girls trip for Christmas home tours and Christmas shopping. Lots of laughter, eating, and getting great decorating ideas!
The stockings hang from brass cup hooks attached to wood supports for the mantel.
My first attempt at this year's mantel decorations ...
- Bedraggled poinsettia arrangement
- White ceramic trees
- Two dark blue votive holders with glass purple star ornaments
The purple ornaments and dark blue votive holders go with the stockings, but all of the other white items over powered them.
Back to re-thinking how to pull out the colors from the stockings with different mantel decorations ...
Using several items I already owned I created the framed inspirational Christmas quote and was finally pleased with how the mantel's colors blended with the stockings.
A few years ago I printed the inspirational Christmas quote on special photo canvas fabric.
I will honor Christmas in my heart
and try to keep it all the year.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
The mantel was totally cleared of all the first decorations, and the newly framed quote was centered in the empty space.
Three glass/ceramic trees were added to each side of the quote. Then the two dark blue votive holders with the purple star ornaments were placed at each side of the quote.
Fresh greenery in water supports the glass purple star ornament. An unglazed square tile protects the wood mantel from possible water leakage from the votive holder.
Four unglazed square tiles add extra height to the votive holder on the right side of the framed quote.
The border around the printed quote is silk fabric found in my stash of fabric brought home from a business trip to India by the Long Tall Texan several years ago.
Sunlight streams onto the French country mantel in the living room decorated for Christmas.
Poinsettias pick up some of the colors in the needlepoint stockings as does the dark purple French script bottle.
Come back later for a tour of the entire living room decorated for Christmas.
Joyeux Noël
May we all live by the new-found wisdom of Scrooge,
and
"honor Christmas in our hearts
and try to keep it all the year."
