How to Decorate A Narrow Stone Mantel for Christmas {in 5 Minutes}

Despite having a very narrow and stone mantel, I managed to decorate it very easily for the last 4 years and every year it takes only 5 minutes to have it exactly like in the picture below. Actually it takes sometimes even less. No really! It all depends on how fast Greg can walk with a board in his hands hahaha :-D. Curious to know how I get our narrow stone mantel ready for Christmas only in 5 minutes ?

All it takes is a 6 foot 2x8 pine board and some EZ cable clips from Home Depot, and that is all there is to it. :-)

Depending on your mantel height you may need to stain the board beforehand. Our mantel is pretty high, so a naked board is not visible to anyone in the living room. Also, depending on how big and bulky your garland is, you may need to use anything from 7 to 11 cable clips on a 6 foot pine board. As my new garland (in the picture below) is a little bigger and bulkier than my old one, I decided to use 11 cable clips with the 6 foot board. But with my old garland (in the pictures above), I only used 7 cable clips as that was more than enough to keep everything in place.

Here is how I did it:

I marked the spots where the cable clips would be and drilled the pilot holes for the screws. Then I screwed the cable clips onto the board. 

I hung my garland from those cable clips, and I started decorating our garland. As you may guess, this part is optional. I always like adding a bit of faux berries, pine cones and poinsettias to our garlands, as it makes it a bit more festive.

As the final step, I asked Greg to help me carry our garland board, and we placed it right on top of our granite mantel.

Once we placed the board on the mantel, he put the mirror back in its place, and I placed my other Christmas decorations on top of the pine board. 

And voila!

What do you think? It looks pretty good, right? And the best part is that decorating our Christmas mantel year after year is the easiest thing ever - takes only 5 minutes, if not less, because the only thing we do is place this ready-made-Christmas-garland-board on the mantel, and I just put whatever I like on top of it. I call that stress-less holiday decorating ;-)

Talking about holiday stress and decorations, other than having this Christmas mantel, we are planning to skip our usual big Christmas decorations this year and instead this is what we have in our living room. 

Don't they look awesome? These are the free printables we are currently sharing at The Navage Patch: 18 awesome Christmas Patent Art in 2 different sizes!

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CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THESE FREE PRINTABLES.

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And I have to say they really make a statement wherever you put them! 

Normally, patent art comes with a hefty price tag, especially if they are big like the ones we're sharing. Really - you can check FineArtAmerica.com if you don't believe me. Any 24"x36" patent art is around $150. But you know me - I would never pay such a price for something I can design myself. And since it is Christmas, I thought this would be the perfect gift to share with others. :-) 

So what are you waiting for? Hop over to The Navage Patch and get your own copy in the size you'd like. Oh by the way, you can easily downsize them if you don't like big prints! ;-)

And while you are there, don't forget to check out our Farmhouse Patent Art free printables too, as that's another popular free printable we share.

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CLICK HERE TO GET THE FARMHOUSE PATENT ART FREE PRINTABLES.

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Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

Handan