Rustic Alpine Christmas Mantel

Hey everyone! Christmas is going to be here before you know it and I’ve teamed up with 17 other bloggers in an ultimate DIY Christmas decor series to help inspire you in your Christmas decorating! The talented Jen Woodhouse invited me to join in, and I’m so happy to be a part of it!

Before we move on, I have a confession to make. I have never in my life decorated a mantel. In fact, I don’t even HAVE a mantel! What I do have is a beautiful Ballard-inspired mantel shelf that I built last year for our bedroom. I don’t typically decorate the bedroom for Christmas, but I was feeling festive I wanted to spread a little more Christmas cheer throughout the house. It was definitely a challenge for me to figure out exactly how to decorate it, but after trying a thousand different options, I finally got it!

Here’s a quick shot of what my mantel shelf looks like every other time of the year.

And here it is now! I tried to add as many pieces of decor that I had on hand to decorate it and only purchased a few items.

The wood sign was actually from this gigantic wood backing that I made last year. I had it in my dining room to hang wreaths and other seasonal decor, but I wanted to change things up in there, so I took it down. Rather than letting it sit and collect dust, I decided to figure out how to use it for this mantel. It doesn’t look like it in the picture, but this thing was pretty big. It measured out at 36″ long and 24″ high. It was way too big for my mantel, so I simply just cut it in half to make my sign.

I whipped up a quick stencil design and painted the lettering with chalk paint.

Aren’t these little trees so cute? I made these last year using wood biscuits, then painted them and added some flocking. You can find the tutorial for how to make them HERE. The ceramic deer are actually bookends that I picked up on clearance at Target a year or two ago.

I purchased the other trees at Michaels, along with a bag of silver and white pinecones. I really loved these trees and had been eyeing them for a while and waited until Black Friday to score them at a bigger discount. Target definitely didn’t disappoint with their adorable decor items in their new Bullseye’s Playground. I got these adorable wood skis for just $3! I bought some fresh cedar garland from Home Depot on Black Friday as well and I added pieces of it to the mantle for some pretty greenery. It was a bit of a mess with the leaves (twigs?) falling on the bed, but that’s what vacuum cleaners are for:)

I love, love, LOVE the finished look! It’s got such a pretty rustic feel to it, but also makes me feel like I’m at an alpine ski lodge. I kind of want to leave it up year-round. I love that I was able to combine items I already had with new items to put this all together. Decorating on a budget is always high on my list. Especially during Christmastime. Make sure to check back each day for the other bloggers participating in this series and see what gorgeous ideas they have come up with! You definitely won’t be disappointed!