Calm & Quiet Winter Decor

After all the holiday decorations, it's time for using what we have to create calming and quiet winter decor on both a mantel and table vignettes.

I've been wanting to share with you our winter decor - just some simple changes I made using what we had (which of course include thrift store finds - see if you can spot the items I've mentioned here in the past!).

Here we are in the middle of January, a time each year that I want to cozy up to a roaring fire with a cup of tea and spend time with my family - or a good book. Uh...that's my dream, anyway. And occasionally it happens, though not nearly enough with all our schedules, activities, and deadlines.

But after the hustle of the holiday season (that seems to start in September these days...) I find myself craving calm and quiet - both in my heart and my surroundings.

And from what I'm reading on other blogs, I'm not alone in this, either. So as we put away all the Christmas decorations, I decided just to keep white and neutral things - and a lot less of those - for a calming and quiet mantel and tabletop decor.

Winter Mantel

I wasn't tired of my sweet pom-pom wreath yet and since it reminded me of snow and winter I chose to keep it in place on the window-turned-mirror.

On the mantel itself I went for neutrals with touches of nature - or faux nature like the epsom salt snow with the candles.

And the pom-pom garland?

I stuck it in a thrift-store apothecary jar, making sure the garland string didn't show so that it would resemble yarn "snow" balls. I think it makes a cute vase-filler.

Another hold-over from the Christmas mantel are the small mason jars and a few pinecones since they're both neutral and nature.

Of course with the attached shelves, I have a larger surface to deal with. In the corner vases I removed the lights, but left the bare branches - I found I liked the wintery-sculptural element they provide.

A graduated row of white pitchers - old, new, and found - is simple.

It's dark, dark in our foggy part of the world right now - and more so in our north-facing living room, but I wanted you to have the whole picture of the fireplace wall - this would be what you see when you enter our cottage.

Looking at this wide angle, I see that I like the way that the branches frame the lanterns and window, but the shelves are seeming a bit busy to me again. Funny, I don't see that in real life...maybe a re-haul of the shelves will become a spring project!

Winter Vignettes

I brought this vintage box out from my workroom to set on the entry table and left some of the mercury glass from the holidays because I like the juxtaposition of the rusty and the shiny.

The sideboard was full of things over the holidays - and I loved it - but it made me crave that calm and quiet here, too.

A simple empty frame Brian made with leftover molding from my workroom bulletin board (which he also used to create the sweet little piece on the mantel!), glass candlesticks, more white pottery with touches of green...nice.

The mercury glass butler's ball (uh, you know, so our butler doesn't miss a thing...) and little framed rose add a bit of interest without making too much noise.

What do you enjoy most about the winter months?

Are you craving calm and quiet like me?

PS - Oh, and I made that knitted throw a few years ago using mostly thrift store wool I had collected. One bright thing that makes me happy to look at!