Rustic Mantel Decorating Ideas for Every Day : A Style Guide

If you have a mantel (or even a long shelf) and you need help with styling, you’re in the right place! Today I’m going to go over all the principles for styling a mantel (as per Joanna Gaines), talk specifically about rustic decor, and then, give you some examples of how to put it together for every season! Keep reading!

How Do You Decorate a Pretty Mantel?

If you have a mantel in your house to decorate, consider yourself so blessed! I always wanted a mantel to decorate, and I was over the moon when the house we moved into had not one, but 2 fireplaces.

But get this.

No mantel! Can you even believe that? There were holes in the brick, so I assume there were mantels at one time. And my guess that it was an amazing natural beam that got snatched in the estate sale before we moved in. Cue the tears.

It took two years, but finally, my dad helped me put up (translate: put up for me) a mantel. Now, it was time to decorate!

And the first question is, ‘How do I decorate it, though?’ Personally, I have elements of all the different farmhouse styles in my house, but rustic farmhouse seems to be what I gravitate toward most naturally.

So today, let’s take a look at how to decorate a mantel for every day – and more specifically, we will look at rustic mantels. There’s a lot of overlap in technique, so this will be helpful even if you wouldn’t call your style solely ‘rustic.’

Oh, and if you don’t have a mantel, no worries. For the time I didn’t have a mantel, I put up a long shelf over my TV and decorated it like a mantel. You can use the same principles for styling a shelf as well.

Characteristics of Rustic Farmhouse Decor

When you’re thinking of the trendy farmhouse decor, there are all kinds of spin-offs that go from there. You have modern farmhouse, coastal farmhouse, boho farmhouse, French farmhouse, rustic farmhouse, and even minimalist farmhouse.

There certainly is overlapping between them, but certainly some defining points for each. Since today we are talking about rustic farmhouse mantels, let’s just do a quick overview of rustic decor to be sure we are all on the same page.

Natural Materials

All kinds of natural elements are your friends in rustic decor. Woods, metals (especially if you like a bit of an industrial look), stones, and brick all fit in beautifully with rustic decor.

You also have lots of nature itself to include, whether faux or real. Depending on the season, think about flowers, baby’s breath, eucalyptus, pine, dried oranges, cinnamon. All of those bits of nature accent rustic decor.

Neutral Tones

Rustic is not known for its splashy base colors. Typically, you’ll find lots of wood and white, creams, greys, and tans. Your accents are where you can add in color, especially seasonally.

That’s where you’ll find your neutral background is so key: so your seasonal decor can take center-stage.

Quirks, Imperfections, and Natural Flaws

Rustic decor is not necessarily about clean and neat lines. It embraces the organic flaws and the imperfect… unsanded edges, chippy paint, timeworn pieces… all of that contributes to a rustic look.

Vintage and Antique Pieces

Rustic decor is not matchy-matchy. It includes all kinds of furniture that aren’t part of a store-bought set, but thoughtfully curated to complement and coordinate with each other.

You can mix-and-match patterns and colors in the same family, include vintage pieces and antiques. You want a cohesive look, so it doesn’t look like you’re just hoarding, but rustic decor doesn’t necessarily have that modern, store-bought feel.

Functional, Meaningful Accessories

Rustic decor has a little bit of nostalgia to it, so feel free to mix in some of your personal items that have special significance to you – family photos, framed letters, handmade pieces, passed-down heirlooms.

Anyone can have a house where it looks like the Hobby Lobby truck crashed into it. Sure, mix in those Hobby Lobby finds, but be sure to have pieces that are unique, meaningful, functional (even if it just serves an emotional purpose), not just a clutter of ‘stuff.’

Now that we’ve cleared up what rustic decor is, let’s talk about mantels

What Can I Put on a Mantel? Mantel Decorating for Every Day

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Chances are, you probably have a lot of the items on hand for your mantel. However, if you want a list to comb through, here’s one to get you started. 

Picture Frames

Candlesticks

Statues

Vases and Stems

Clocks

Decorative Boxes

Framed Photos

Framed Art

Mirrors

Candles

Signs and Quotes

DIY Crafts and Projects

Personal/Family Memorabilia

Garland

Beads

Buntings

Antique Books

Various Bottles

Wreaths

Window Panes

Shutters

And then, when you get to decorating your mantel seasonally, you have a whole other set of options.

How Would Joanna Gaines Decorate a Mantel? Styling a Rustic Mantel

Farmhouse decor, no matter what end of the spectrum it’s on, takes a lot of its cues from Joanna Gaines. So, let’s look at some of her recommendations for styling a mantel, and of course, using the rustic style guide above, you can modify those items to farmhouse rustic decor.

An Anchor

First, you want something large in the center. It can be a sign, a framed piece of art, a mirror, a window. Basically, think of it as a statement piece.

Height

On the outside of your anchor piece, you want to add some height. Some say the anchor should be the tallest and create a visual triangle, with the side pieces shorter in size.

In the visual from Magnolia, you can see the outside pieces are taller. I think it’s just what you like and what you have on hand.

You can use tall vases and flowers, candlesticks, even stacking books, and putting a smaller item on it to give it some height. 

The idea is that you don’t want your shortest pieces on the outside edges.

Greenery and Stems

You want to add in some natural elements in there, faux or real. They can be eucalyptus stems, faux flowers, baby’s breath, dried flowers – whatever is your personal choice. Joanna suggests using just one stem, even if you use different vases or bottles.

Layering

Layering your items adds some depth. For this, you can use personal items such as framed family pictures, a framed letter or written keepsake, a handmade craft or project, a quote you love. Vary your layering by size, giving peeks at the items, even if they aren’t fully displayed. 

Asymmetrical Items

Here is where you can fill in some of those gaps. Your mantel in rustic decor doesn’t need to be perfectly symmetrical. You can add in some eclectic groups of decor (try to group items in an odd number – 3 is typically ideal) in an assortment of sizes. 

The idea is balance and coordination over symmetry.

Examples of Rustic Mantels for Various Seasons (Christmas, Winter, Valentine’s Day, Spring, Summer, Fall)

I’m going to share with you how I incorporated many of these tips and strategies into my own mantel.

To be fair, I’ve only had a ‘real’ mantel since this past November, so I’ve only styled it for Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and now Spring.

However, I did have a shelf above my TV that I decorated as a mantel, so I used many of the same principles there. And if you don’t have a legit mantel, a long shelf can be styled in the same way. I didn’t follow every rule to the letter, but that is sort of the beauty of rustic decor – imperfections and personal variations are totally acceptable!

I’ll take you through these pictures as a progression of my house (and my skill, lol).

Rustic Summer Mantel Ideas

This was done right after we put up this shelf above the TV. We didn’t have our fireplace mantel yet.

Here, I used the black windowpane as my anchor and the greens were my outside (ish) height. The chippy flower pots and candlestick along with the rope DIY vase added some imperfect, natural elements, and the sign in the middle (compliments of my sister) is my personal item.

Here are my summer mantels and fireplace area:

 

And the next year (ignore the TV – it’s a long story, lol).

(You can check out 30 more summer mantel ideas here!)

Rustic Fall Mantel Ideas

Here’s the same shelf styled for fall. You can see I kept the black windowpane as my anchor, and I used some fall decor like the leaves and wheat stalks for some of my natural pieces. The tall candlestick and the vase give the height, and I layered with a different fall sign and a neutral, canvas ribbon wreath.

Here’s the shelf this year in 2021:

And here’s my fireplace and mantel:

(You can also take a look at more fall mantels right here!)

Rustic Christmas Mantel Ideas

Here is the same shelf for Christmas. Again, there’s my black windowpane paired with a Christmas print in a big, chunky wood frame. Lots of natural elements with the pine cones, the live cypress garland, and the greens in the oversized glass jug.  I used this same style all throughout my living room for Christmas. You can see the my Christmas Mantel from the following year,

 

Finally! My real mantel! This was just a week or two after it was built and put up, so the decor is somewhat simple. The oversized sign is obviously the anchor(this is a print from my Etsy shop), with some natural elements and seasonal decor.

There’s no height on the outside, as I didn’t have any yet! But that is coming.

The bottom of the fireplace really steals the show, though, which is fine, too!

Below is my Christmas Mantel from the following year, in 2021, as well as the shelf I created as my mantel-before-my-mantel.

PS – If you want some inspiration for incredible Christmas mantels, here are 30 farmhouse Christmas mantel ideas you’ll love – ranging from rustic all the way to modern farmhouse!

Rustic Winter Mantel Ideas

Here you can see the fireplace for winter… a different oversized winter print (a quote from Robert Frost) and now there’s the candlesticks for the outside height. I layered some other decorative items along with a winter quote sign.

I didn’t change out too much Christmas decor (that’s with intention. I decorate to be lazy in the next season, lol), but I added a beaded garland to brighten things up.

This is my living room ‘mantel’ for winter – no garland but I kept some winter greens with my outside pieces for height. I also switched out some of the Christmas prints and included some winter prints instead. Just a few decorative eclectic items. Very simple but after Christmas, I needed a cleaner, simpler look!

Here is the Winter 2022 mantel and shelf:

Rustic Valentine’s Day Mantel Ideas

Here’s the same shelf for Valentine’s Day. I’m not a big fan of hearts or red, so that’s a challenge for Valentine’s Day! lol  I wanted to go totally neutral, but it was too boring and I needed some color. Instead, I went with a spring look of flowers and some pinks to brighten things up! I also included a coordinated love-themed printable with flowers, not hearts, to keep it around a little longer.

I don’t have a strong anchor in this set-up – the chunky wood frame would probably be it. But the ends have the tall glass jug with eucalyptus and the candlesticks, so it provides the balance.

Once again, I’m using a large print for the anchor and statement piece. I also layered in a print that has Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 (one of my favorites when I was teaching!). The buffalo check heart is layered in (here’s the DIY tutorial for it). The height is provided with the candlesticks and the vase and flowers, and I kept the layered garland and beads from my winter set-up!

You can see my full Rustic Valentine’s Day decor here!

Here are the 2022 Valentine’s Day Mantel and Shelves in neutral style:

Rustic Spring Mantel Ideas

Here, you can see that I kept the staple items from Valentine’s Day, but just changed some of the details. I kept the candle sticks and the vase with eucalyptus for the height on the outside. My ‘anchor’ is something of a combination of the chunky frame and the circle decor piece, which added some natural fibers and texture.

I added in a DIY beaded wreath and coordinated the flowers in the bottles to match. Then I added in the galvanized metal pail along with the picture, to give some dimension.

This is a little bit of a side-angle shot because there was a pretty bad glare straight on, but you get the idea. Another large print for my anchor. My tall ends are some wood candlesticks along with baby’s breath. The inside filler is a vase with flowers, some vintage terra cotta pots, another terra cotta pot that is covered with fabric and filled with mini pillows, and some books covered with scrapbook paper (all DIYs). 

I was going for a more romantic feel this spring, along with what I did for Valentine’s Day, but just a little brighter.  I also switched out the garland for something with more color and a spring-like feel.

This is the Spring 2022 Rustic Wildflower Garden Theme along with the Neutral Spring Shelf:

You can also check out 30 gorgeous spring mantels here!

And there you have it – rustic mantel ideas for every season of the year! 

More Rustic Decor Ideas for the Home

If you need more rustic seasonal ideas, I have posts for every season to give you some inspiration for vignettes for all kinds of home decorating.  Check out some of the articles below for more rustic inspiration!

21 Rustic BEDDING IDEAS (+ Bedroom Styling Tips!)

Rustic Farmhouse FALL Decorating Ideas

CHRISTMAS Rustic Farmhouse DIY Projects

Rustic Farmhouse WINTER Decorating Ideas

VALENTINE’S DAY  Rustic Farmhouse DIYs

Rustic Farmhouse SPRING Decorating Ideas

Rustic SPRING DIY Home Decor Projects

 If you decorate with any of these ideas, I’d LOVE to see it! Tag me on Instagram @100affections!

I’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment below!