If you’re looking to redecorate and don’t know where to start, your mantel is a great first task: It’s a fairly small area, is relatively contained and offers all sorts of opportunities for stacking, hanging, leaning, draping and layering décor every which way. This gorgeous mantel comes to us from the home of Saratogian Lara Watro, the interior design genius behind the @peoniesandtwine Instagram account. For Watro, every decorating project is a work in progress, as is evidenced by her daily posts featuring her ever-evolving (and always gorgeous) Saratoga home.
This particular mantel treatment has recently undergone several iterations leading up to and directly following Christmas—one with just a simple strand of garland, one with a nativity scene drawn on an oversized chalkboard in place of the mirror, a few with mini rust and white Christmas trees. “I initially didn’t feel excited about this mantel,” the influencer confessed in a post from November 21. “So I sat back, I grabbed my coffee and stared a while. I got back up and added a few more things.” For now, her wintery scene makes good use of her fashionable stockings, and a golden, greenery-stuffed vase and garland remain vaguely Christmas-y, elongating her home’s holiday cheer. Eventually, even the stockings will be put back in storage and the garland will be deconstructed. And the cycle will begin anew.