Mantelpieces Decked Beyond Stockings

With the holidays bearing down like the mythical Polar Express, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to order and get your new mantel installed before they’re over. However, you can make your old mantel a little more interesting.

“Use lots of garland, greenery, hanging pearls, bows--the more you put on the mantel the better,” says interior designer Leslie Barish of Design Consultants in Huntington Beach. “You’ll bring focus to the mantel and above it, which is where you want it.”

Suggests designer Michelle Graham of Santos & Graham in San Juan Capistrano: “You can put small fresh ivy or rosemary topiary trees across the mantel or at either end. The ivy is beautiful, and the rosemary adds a wonderful scent.”

Graham suggests using a row of small candles, perhaps in inexpensive terra-cotta pots. “Lots of people have more ornaments than their tree will hold, so you could put those on the mantel, especially the glass balls surrounded by garland or greenery.”

If your redone or redecorated mantel makes the fireplace look like a black box, spruce up this area as well. “Get a new screen or hardware, or, if you have glass doors, install gas logs and remove the doors. The glass doors tend to make the firebox look smaller,” says Chris Jank of the Hearthstone in Corona del Mar.

If you’re going to be hanging stockings from the mantel on Christmas Eve, make sure Santa doesn’t overload them. “I’ve heard of a mantel breaking off on Christmas morning when the kids pulled on the stockings,” Sanchez says. “Granted, it probably wasn’t attached to the wall very well.”