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Photo courtesy of Michele Plachter
How to decorate your fireplace mantel decor for the holiday season, according to interior designer tips.
When we think of the merriest holiday decorations, we immediately think of sparkle, shine and rich colors—but what decor inspires interior designers during the holiday season?
We reached out to four different interior designers to get their take on fireplace mantel decor for the holiday season and beyond. Using interior designer tips, you can make your holiday hearth your favorite spot in your home for cozying up with some hot cocoa.
Read on to get interior designer tips for fireplace mantel decor that shines bright all holiday season long.
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MICHELE PLACHTER OF MICHELE PLACHTER DESIGN | PHILADELPHIA, PA
Michele Plachter is the founder of her own full-service interior design company, Michele Plachter Design, and she adorned this beautiful holiday hearth for a client project.
Photo courtesy of Michele Plachter
“On this project, I had a vision of an elegant and colorful Christmas, but in a non-traditional colorway,” Platcher says. “I loved the idea of teals, whites and splashes of pink to compliment the home we designed.My client loves a touch of glam, so we had a few gold Christmas trees in the entrance.”
“I decided to partner with Coleen Christian who specialized in Christmas decorating as it was a big undertaking—I love collaborating with other experts! She was amazing and so helpful. We both had a great sense of what the house needed and how to make it feel special and unexpected while keeping the Christmas spirit the point of focus,” she added.
Her recommendation for decorating your own mantel for the holiday season? Keep it simple.
“Less is more, keep it simple and elegant,” Platcher says. “Create a focal point using a mirror or a piece of art. Use natural accents and not too much, consider using an odd number of objects and varying heights to keep things unexpected.”
“It’s like an internal garden. Keep some empty space and breathing room on the mantle, it can look too cluttered if you fill it up,” she added.
Platcher also says to think outside the box—you don’t have to decorate with the typical red and green to make your home feel festive.
“Look around and grab inspiration from the style and colors in your home and go from there,” Platcher says. “Thematic items can be kitschy—I’m not a fan of “cute” for Christmas. Elevate the objects you decorate with by using meaningful items or things that were carefully curated, keep it elegant and pretty.”
“Update pillows to feel more festive, but stay away from stuffed snowman pillows or pillows with quotes. Subtle equals elevated,” she added.
“Less is more, keep it simple and elegant,” Platcher says. “Create a focal point using a mirror or a piece of art.”
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DAN RAK OF DAN RAK DESIGN | CHICAGO, IL
Dan Rak is the principal designer of an award-winning interior design firm, Dan Rak Design, and he went traditional for his client’s fireplace mantel decor design.
Photo courtesy of Dan Rak
“In the formal living room, we wanted the mantel decor to tie in with the tree and the permanent decor,” Rak says. “We used jewel tones and peacock feathers to tie everything together. In the family room, we wanted a more casual, family-friendly vibe.”
“We chose traditional red stockings, and wove cranberry beads through the garland for an old-world touch,” he added.
Photo courtesy of Dan Rak
The best way to decorate your home during the holiday season? Rak says it’s all about having fun.
“The holidays offer such a great opportunity to have fun with decor. There are lots of dos and don’ts when it comes to permanent decor, but the rules can stretch quite a bit when it comes to the holidays,” Rak says. “That said, from an aesthetic perspective, it’s best to come up with a theme and color palette and work within those parameters.”
“Green and red tends to be the most common color palette for most, but there are lots of colors that could work. For example, the peacock tones we used in this formal living room. Some other themes that we’ve loved working with in the past include a Candyland room and an old-world Santa’s workshop theme,” he added.
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To keep your mantel looking beautiful all year round, Rak says to follow the “less is more” rule of design.
“I love to find one or two well-scaled objects that are simple, but beautiful and place them on one end of the mantle for an asymmetric look.” Rak says. “We focus a lot of effort on selecting beautiful stone or wood mantels for our projects and we like to allow those architectural elements to shine.”
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MEGAN MOLTEN OF MEGAN MOLTEN | MOUNT PLEASANT, SC
Megan Molten is the founder, principal designer and creative director of her full-service design firm by the same name, and she is a lover of all things interior design. For her mantel, she worked with a local textile designer to fit her vision of the holiday season.
Photo courtesy of Megan Molten
“I had these stockings made by Charleston local textile designer, Emily Daws,” Molten says. “I do not have a traditional mantel, so we had to get creative and attach the greenery to my fireplace using command hooks. I was able to successfully create the modern, coastal Christmas look I was going for!”
When decorating the holidays, Molten says to focus on colors you already have in your home for a cohesive look.
“For example, if you have a lot of white, brass and black, you may want to consider adding Christmas decor that incorporates well with the other accessories, such as pops of color and gold finishings,” she says. “It’s good to create a fun mix and balance between the two. Also adding touches of greenery—a mix of real and faux—really helps elevate your holiday decor.”
Once the holidays are over, Molten recommends keeping fireplace mantel decor simple.
“Keep it simple,” she says. “I typically like to include palms on either side of the mantel in tall cylinder style vases. When you’re decorating for the holidays you can always switch out the palms for something a little more festive!”
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“Adding touches of greenery—a mix of real and faux—really helps elevate your holiday decor.”
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SARAH WILLETT OF PATINA VIE | RIPON, WI
After working behind the scenes as a designer, stylist and product developer for 20 years, Sarah Willett started Patina Vie in 2012 to share her own unique eye for design—and her talent is evident in her decorated hearth.
Photo courtesy of Sarah Willett
“We live in a rustic little cottage in Wisconsin’s emerald countryside; quaint and cozy thanks to our grand old hearth,” Willett says. “The hand-hewn mantel holds 22 years worth of our property’s fallen (shed) whitetail antlers, a family tradition we started when our kids were little.
“I don’t think we’ll ever run out of space even if we continue for another few decades,” she added.
Willett’s favorite part about decorating for the holidays is taking it slow and enjoying the process along the way.
“My favorite approach to holidaying is to enjoy the process,” she says. “Lots of greens, family memories and a few unexpected touches—all without too much fuss or planning. I adore the nostalgia that decorating/styling my own space can give me.”
“I’ve learned over the years to give myself permission to play.. to throw little touches together.. to allow the process to be as magical as the outcome.”
Her recommendation for keeping your mantel beautiful all year long?
“Simple and easy touches are all that our ancient mantel ever needs. Fresh potted herbs in summertime, and glittery branches to celebrate the chill of wintertime,” Willett says.
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New collaboration with Urban Barn is a range of decorative and functional accessories—think throws, pillows, vases and trays
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When it comes to speaking with the media, Tommy Smythe has a unique way of looking at the experience. The Canadian interior designer and television personality likes to get comfortable. Really comfortable.
“I’m actually going to lie down on my bed right now because these are like therapy sessions for me,” Smythe confides over the telephone from his Toronto residence.
It’s a busy day media-wise for Smythe as he’s chatting all afternoon about his soon-to-be-launched home accessories capsule collection with Urban Barn. It’s the first time both parties have engaged in this type of collaboration, but a previous professional association made the concept appealing and the process a joy, according to Smythe.
For a number of years, he had dealt with Sebastien Fauteux, general merchandising manager for Urban Barn, to source furnishings for Sarah Richardson‘s television shows. “Whenever we needed something that was good design, available for pickup, and that we could rely on leaving behind with families that we served on those television programs, we would call Urban Barn and always get what we needed,” Smythe recalls.
When considering doing a collaboration, he wanted to partner with people whom he felt knew him and where there was an established trust and respect on both sides. For him, Fauteux and Urban Barn fit that brief.
“So, for both of us, it was kind of like, let’s hold hands on the edge of this cliff, jump and see what happens,” Smythe says.
“And when you’re doing that with a partner, you have to choose the right person, the right company, the right brand. I have to tell you, and I’m so proud to say this on the record, it was an absolute pleasure from start to finish: creatively, logistically, managerially, promotionally.”
The result of that collaboration is a range of decorative and functional accessories—think throws, pillows, vases, trays and stash pots. These are a deeply personal reflection of Smythe’s design vision and ethos. The colour palette is a mix of classic hues—black, cognac and navy blue— that can be integrated into different design schemes from modern to traditional, much like the name of Smythe’s company TOM Design Studio, which is not just a play on his name but spells out the three partners’ democratic approach to design: traditional or modern.
“There was a lot of intentionality behind what we did with the colour palette, what we did with the materials and what we did with patterns and the shapes that we were working with,” he explains. “I kind of said, ‘There’s a lot of fast fashion in home décor these days. Is there a way for us to look at a way of creating things that might be able to be stitched into people’s existing décor but that would stay for a long time, not a short time?’
Smythe said discussions focussed on what types of fabrics and finishes people would want to hold onto and how they would care for the pieces. Would they be easy to clean and maintain over time to want to keep them?
“We looked at indigos from vintage fabrics and textiles that I had from Japan, from Africa, from America,” he says. “We looked at old leather and how to make that into something that was more responsible ethically where animals wouldn’t be harmed. Urban Barn sourced this incredible vegan product that we were able to have woven into textures for throw pillows that are so chic and are so real looking in terms of their presentation but also have this underlying component that you can feel good about.”
Smythe envisions the person who buys something from the collection as looking at individual items or two or three items but not necessarily buying the entire range. It’s about integrating items into existing design schemes, like a tray that works on an inherited sideboard and having those pieces work throughout the home if someone wants to move things around to different rooms.
“A lot of us live in small spaces now,” Smythe observes. “Most people’s kitchen looks into their dining room (and) looks into their living room, and, in some cases, you can even see the bed. Because so many of us are living this way now, we’re living vertically in tall buildings in small spaces; I really wanted there to be a neutrality to this collection so people could feel it wasn’t clashing with other elements in other spaces.”
That neutrality also complements the rest of the Urban Barn concurrent range, he adds.
If the colour palette is about versatility, the textures are all about grounding and warmth. Smythe says heavy textures always add grounding, which translates to warmth.
“That’s why those vegan leather pillows made it into the collection because we really wanted something that had a little bit of coarse texture to ground,” he says.
Another example of how texture creates warmth—literally and emotionally—is one of his favourite items in the collection. He calls it the bandana throw, based on a vintage, pale blue bandana he bought a few years ago in L.A.
“It’s like an old, old, worn thing,” he says. “I love that. It’s quilted. It’s machine washable.”
An early prototype of that throw which spent the summer at his family’s Muskoka cottage proved that it would be something that would be well used and loved.
“Over the course of last summer, it was in so many family photos because they had it in the boat,” he recalls. “They had it on the sofa. The kids were under it. My mom was under it. People were wearing it when they were making their coffee in the morning. I just thought, ‘that works.’”
It’s that idea of various pieces in the collection being used and cherished in ways that work for how the buyer wants to live, not how a designer envisioned its use, that Smythe hopes resonates.
“I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t telling people what to do,” he explains. “I was giving them things to help do what they already wanted to do. There’s a distinction to be made there. That’s why we arrived at the palette that we arrived at. That’s why we used the metallics, the textures and the shapes that we had. It goes back to we don’t want you to throw everything out and start with the Tommy Smythe collection. We want you to keep everything you have and grab a couple of things from my collection and fold them into what you already have.”
The Tommy Smythe x Urban Barn collection arrives in stores Nov. 3.
