Fall mantel decor is the thing I put off every season because of one awkward truth: there is a TV above my fireplace and a whole lot of quartz below it. No tall artwork, no towering branches, nothing that blocks the screen. This year I stopped fighting it and built one long, low, foraged garland on a board, and it might be my favorite mantel yet.
Almost everything on it came from the yard, a friend’s tree, or my craft room: green magnolia, dried hops, olive branches, the leaves I preserved in glycerin, hydrangeas, and persimmons cut straight from my friend’s tree. The persimmons are the whole reason this mantel works. Here is exactly how it went together, in the order I built it, starting with the base that holds all of it in place.
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Why I Build My Mantel Garland on a Board
A mantel cannot hold a loose pile of stems, and mine has cords to hide on top of everything else. So the garland is built on a flat board right on top of the mantel. Stems push straight into floral foam and stay exactly where you put them, nothing slides off, and when the season is over I pull the stems, keep the board, and reuse it for Christmas. The board also does a second job: the blanket tucked behind it covers the TV cords.
Supplies You Will Need
The Base
- A flat board about 6 inches wide and 3.5 feet long
- 3 to 4 dry floral foam blocks
- Hot glue gun and glue sticks
- Spanish moss
- Floral pins
- A folded blanket (goes behind the base and hides the cords)
For the garland
- Dried hops
- Fresh green magnolia branches
- Dried olive branches
- Glycerin preserved leaves
- Fresh persimmons, plus faux pomegranates or persimmons to swap in later
- Dried Hydrangeas
- Dried eucalyptus in burgundy
- Dried seed pods
- Dried orange slices
- Small wooden clothespins, one per orange slice
- Feathers
- DIY terra cotta pumpkins
- Gourds
- Small white pumpkins
- Sweater pears
For styling
- Candlesticks with battery candles
- Demijohns
- A harvest basket filled with persimmons
- A raffia pumpkin and a large orange pumpkin for the hearth
Tip from wendy:
Buy foam labeled for dried and silk stems, not the wet foam made for fresh flowers. Wet foam crumbles once it dries out and will not hold a heavy branch.
How I Built the Fall Mantel, Step by Step
Step 1: Build the base
Hot glue three or four dry foam blocks along a flat board about 6 inches wide and 3.5 feet long. Cover the front of the foam with Spanish moss, hot gluing it down and pushing floral pins through the moss into the foam wherever it wants to lift. You are hiding the mechanics now so you never have to think about them again.
Step 2: Set it on the mantel and tuck the blanket
Lay the board on the mantel, then fold a blanket and tuck it behind the board, letting it spill over the right end. The blanket softens the fireplace, and more importantly it hides the TV cords. Everything from here on gets built in place, right on the mantel.
Step 3: Hops first
Dried hops go in first. Push the stems into the foam and let the hops drape along the front edge so the trailing shape is set before anything heavy lands.
Step 4: Green magnolia
Push magnolia branches into the foam at angles so you see both the glossy green side and the copper underside. This is the backbone of the garland and it starts to hide the foam from the front.
Step 5: Place the candles and demijohns
Before adding anything else, set the candlesticks and demijohns where they will live. It is much easier to build the garland around them now than to wedge them in later and crush everything.
Step 6: Fresh persimmons
Now the star. Fresh persimmons cut from my friend’s tree are the main beauty of this mantel, and that bright orange against the green magnolia is what everyone loves. Tuck them along the garland so they sit in the pockets between the magnolia, a few close to the front edge and a few pushed back. They stay firm on the mantel for about two weeks before they ripen, so plan on swapping them out for faux pomegranates or persimmons once they start to soften. But don’t worry, there are several things you can do with them once they are ripe.
- Slice the persimmons and dehydrate them. They make a delicious treat.
- Make persimmon pulp to use in recipes like persimmon cookies or persimmon bread.
- Make a few Christmas decorations with the dehydrated slices.
- Make persimmon soap and give it as a gift this holiday season.
Step 7: Pumpkins, gourds, and olive branches
Nestle in a few terra cotta pumpkins, a few gourds, and the small white pumpkins I grew in the garden this summer. Set the larger pieces first and use the small ones to fill the pockets between them. Then place some dried olive branches on the left and right sides to add texture and color.
Step 8: Step back, then add hydrangeas, eucalyptus, fall leaves and seed pods
Walk across the room and look. Wherever the garland feels thin or too green, add dried hydrangeas, seed pods, burgundy eucalyptus, a few dried persimmon slices and the preserved fall leaves. The burgundy is what pushes the whole thing into that deep autumn color, the same moody palette that took over my moody fall tablescape. Last, I added a few sweater pears I made last year for another layer of texture.
Step 9: Feathers and orange slices
Feathers go in last among the stems. For the dried orange slices, hot glue a small wooden clothespin to the back of each slice, then clip it right onto a hop branch. No wire, no glue on the garland, and you can move them around until they look right.
Step 10: Basket of persimmons
Finish with a harvest basket piled high with persimmons set on the hearth. It is the exclamation point on the whole mantel.
Decorating a Mantel with a TV Above It
The rules that make this work: keep the center low so nothing crosses the screen, put your height at the far ends, let the lamps live on both ends like bookends, and use the TV itself. Mine is a regular TV set to art mode for photos, and it reads as a frame instead of a black rectangle. A mantel with a TV is not a compromise. It is a long, low canvas, and a garland on a board is the easiest way to fill it.
The Hearth
Down below, a raffia pumpkin and a big orange pumpkin from the garden sit next to the basket and carry the height the mantel cannot.
More from This Mantel
Almost every piece on this mantel has its own post:
- How I preserve leaves with glycerin (the soft, draping leaves).
- 3 ways to make dried orange slices.
- My DIY terra cotta pumpkins.
- How to dry persimmons for decorating.
- How to bake pinecones for crafts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Treat dried botanicals as kindling and plan accordingly. Ours is a gas fireplace used with care, the candles are battery operated, and nothing hangs low over the firebox. If you burn wood regularly, keep the garland higher and skip the trailing pieces.
Dried hop vines are sold by floral suppliers and online in late summer and fall. If you can get fresh hops, hang the vine in a dry, dark spot for two to three weeks and it will dry on its own.
Firm Fuyu persimmons from the grocery store work just as well and are in season from October through December. Pick the hardest ones you can find so they last on the mantel.
Yes. Pull the stems out one at a time, leave the moss and foam glued to the board, and store it flat. The same board comes back out for Christmas and takes a whole new garland.
Use two or three small foam blocks on shallow trays instead, spaced along the mantel, and connect them with trailing greenery. The eye reads it as one garland.
Foraged Fall Mantel Garland on a Board
Equipment
- 1 Glue Gun
- 1 Pair of gardening sheers
Materials
Board base
- 1 flat board about 6 inches wide and 3.5 feet long
- 3 to 4 dry floral foam blocks
- Hot glue sticks
- Spanish moss
- Floral pins
- 1 folded blanket
For the garland
- Dried hops
- Fresh green magnolia branches
- Dried olive branches
- Glycerin preserved leaves
- Fresh persimmons plus faux pomegranates or persimmons to swap in later
- Dried hydrangeas
- Dried eucalyptus in burgundy
- Dried seed pods
- Dried orange slices
- Small wooden clothespins one per orange slice
- Feathers
- DIY terra cotta pumpkins
- Gourds
- Small white pumpkins
- Sweater pears
For styling
- Candlesticks with battery candles
- Demijohns
- Harvest basket filled with persimmons
- Raffia pumpkin and large orange pumpkin for the hearth
Instructions
- Hot glue the dry foam blocks in a row along the board. Cover the front of the foam with Spanish moss, hot gluing it down and securing it with floral pins.
- Set the board on the mantel. Fold the blanket, tuck it behind the board, and let it spill over the right end to hide the TV cords.
- Push the dried hops into the foam first, draping them along the front edge.
- Add the magnolia branches at angles so both the green and copper sides show.
- Set the candlesticks and demijohns in place before adding anything else.
- Tuck fresh persimmons into the pockets between the magnolia, a few near the front edge and a few pushed back.
- Nestle in the terra cotta pumpkins, gourds, and small white pumpkins, larger pieces first. Add dried olive branches to the left and right sides.
- Step back and look. Fill thin spots with dried hydrangeas, seed pods, burgundy eucalyptus, and preserved leaves. Add the sweater pears.
- Tuck in the feathers. Hot glue a clothespin to the back of each dried orange slice and clip the slices onto the hop branches.
- Finish with a basket of persimmons on the hearth, with the raffia pumpkin and orange pumpkin beside it.
Notes
Wrapping Up
A board, a few blocks of foam, and an afternoon of poking stems into moss is all it takes to turn a mantel with a TV into the warmest spot in the house. Most of mine was foraged, grown here, or picked from a friend’s tree, and the persimmons did the rest. If you build one, leave a comment and tell me what you used from your own yard. I would love to see it.
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