Arranging A MANTEL

Creating the perfect mantel display can feel never-ending. Carey Johnson takes her time to find an ideal arrangement.

Here are her top tips.

• START WITH AN ANCHOR. Carey first finds an anchor piece and then works her way outward, framing that piece on either side with items of different sizes and shapes. “If you can find that one thing you love for the center, then you can layer out,” she says. “Find a good piece that’s transitional, not seasonal.”

• USE LARGE PIECES. Larger pieces you can slip behind your other décor will provide height in addition to good style. If you’re stuck for ideas, try a mirror or window frame.

• MIX MATERIALS. Carey likes to mix items with different patinas, textures, sizes and shapes. Combining wood, glass and natural elements adds variation and interest. She suggests looking for salvaged spindles or corbels, mirrors, windows or vases. • DON’T BE AFRAID OF CHANGE. Continue to rearrange until you’re happy with the final product. When Carey arranges her mantel, she anticipates a lot of trial and error. “I step back, and if I don’t love it, I try something else,” she says.

(opposite, top) At a yard sale Carey found the deconstructed settee and chair now in her living room. They were in good condition, but the fabric was “rough.” Carey removed the fabric and covered the frames with milk paint. Her husband, Alan, added wooden seats that are topped with pillows. (opposite, bottom) Vintage kitchen tins, crystal wine glasses and ironstone meld with Carey’s grandmother’s punchbowl in the cabinet. “I like creating vignettes that you wouldn’t expect to go together,” she says. Next to the cabinet is a collection of posts from old porches.

The family room, which Carey dubs her “pretty room,” is her place to unwind. She found matching channel-back chairs through Facebook Marketplace and painted the cherry trim white, covered with an antique glaze. The mantel arrangement incorporates a corbel and spindles she turned into candlesticks.