MANTEL DECOR MADE EASY

Mix and match pennant banner can be updated throughout seasons, writes Holly Ramer.

I recently moved to a new house that is less than half the size of my former home, but the new place has one key feature the old one lacked: a fireplace. Or, more specifically, a fireplace mantel to decorate.

Moving and furnishing a new house is expensive, however. So I designed a pennant banner that can hang from my mantel all year round and be quickly updated from holiday to holiday, season to season.

The secret is reversible fabric pennants that are held in place with bits of Velcro. It took a little planning to figure out the best colour-combinations, but the result is a banner than can be transformed over and over again.

The orange, black and white version can easily segue from Halloween to a more late fall design by switching out the black and white for more autumnal brown, red and yellow.

Swap out the greens on a green-and-red yuletide banner and replace them with pink and white for Valentine’s Day. Bring back the green for St. Patrick’s Day, or follow up by mixing pink, yellow and light green for Easter and spring.

Better still, arrange the pennants in rainbow order for a festive birthday banner.

I chose to sew mine, but an even easier option would be just cutting triangles out of felt.