Our Christmas Mantel

I've always liked Scandinavian decor and with Kate having just fallen in love with it too, I thought this would be a great year to decorate our mantel for Christmas in that style.

So what key elements of Scandinavian design did I use when decorating the mantel? Well, I used lots of candles and shiny objects,

and white was the main colour,

and plenty of natural elements like pine cones (and fake pine cones) and evergreen boughs (also fake),

There you have it. I really like the soft effect against the light green walls, but when the husband first saw it he asked me why there wasn't any colour on the mantel. Sigh. I think it is growing on him though as we both like the simplicity of the decor.

Have you got your tree up? or your mantel decorated? I'm having our annual Christmas Craft party here next weekend so I wanted to get some of the decorating done to set the mood for the party.  I'm still working on the sideboard and plan on putting the paper snowflakes that we made last year up on the walls. I've got some fun crafts planned for the party. I'm looking forward to it.

When I was finished decorating the mantel I had to look back at how I decorated it in previous years. You can see the past four years in the collage below (clockwise from the top left - 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013).