French Vintage Friday: Quick & Easy Mantel – Christmas To Winter

It’s been a minute since Emily and I shared for French Vintage Friday. Just like everyone else we got a little busy right over Christmas but we’re so glad to be back.

So Christmas is over for another year and it’s time to start removing all the specifically Christmas decor pieces around the house. I typically start to do this on New Years Day or thereabouts.

Because my typical Christmas decor style is pretty neutral and and I use a lot of winter appropriate things rather than strictly Christmas, it’s quite simple to change out a few things and have Christmas packed away for another year.

Let me show you how….

Let’s start with the mantel. I simply used a wooden Merry Christmas sign, vintage music banner, gold bead garland, some vintage framed prints, some vintage books and some natural elements like pinecones and bottle brush trees.

The vintage sheet music garland I made Christmas 2019 was such a favorite of mine that I decided to put it back up again this year, along with the gold bead garland.

I frequently use vintage prints, either genuine vintage or prints of vintage pieces, in my frames around my home. I love how quickly and easily they can be changed out with the season or occasion and yet fit in so perfectly with my french vintage decor style.

This year I added the wooden Merry Christmas sign behind the vintage white and gold frame. The mercury glass tree is a favorite of mine as well and frequently makes an appearance on the mantel.

Are you ready to see the simple little changes I will make to transition this to winter now?

Oh good! I thought so.

First I replaced the vintage prints in the small gold frames with different prints that are more winter feeling as opposed to obvious Christmas.

As you can imagine this is about a 2 minute project. Super simple.

Next I replaced the vintage Santa print with this inspirational quote that I actually got from a Dollar Tree Calendar. I thought it was very fitting for the New Year.

For the empty space where the Merry Christmas sign had been in the center, I decided to make a simple wreath. To see how I made it click HERE.

I also removed the vintage music garland and the gold bead garland for a simpler look.

Clearly I could have completely re-done the entire mantel and made it look totally different but that is not the point of this blog post. I wanted to show you how simple it can be to change out your Christmas decor for a winter look. It doesn’t have to be complicated and time consuming unless you choose to make it so. (Which I normally do 😄)

So just to recap…