Faux & Foraged Autumn Mantle Tutorial

How to make a stylish Autumn mantle arrangement for under £20

A handy guide to creating a stylish mantle that everyone's sure to 'Fall' for!

One of the best things about this time of the year is the change in decor, it's all about Autumn vibes now. The colours and textures become cosier and more comforting and lead us up to Christmas (don't worry, it's a bit early to be talking about that yet - even for me!!).

I wanted to create an Autumn mantle display to add some colour to the front room, but as usual, I was sure to stick to as low a budget as possible as I find this makes you be more creative and less wasteful.

I used a combination of foliage from the garden, old recycled faux stems and a handful of new ones. I only spent £14 and here's how I did it...

Step 1: Garden Foraging

Our garden is pretty wild and overgrown at the moment, for once that was a good thing as there was a wide selection of greenery to choose from for this little project. I opted for three main kinds of foliage, Conifer, Bay and another sturdy shrub which I don't know the name of. If you don't have a garden or you do but it doesn't have any suitable foliage then pop over to my foraging page here to read my top tips for how to forage flowers and foliage for home styling. I gave all the branches a good shake before bringing them in to ensure there weren't any bugs on them and then stored in wire baskets ready to arrange.

Step 2: In with the old

I always try to reuse and recycle old props and home accessories, as well as saving money it saves space and that is something I'm really struggling with at the moment (a big declutter is on the cards!).

For this project, I used some pink sun heart spears that I bought from Dunelm last year (I think there were about £6 for a bunch) and some large faux white and green roses. I borrowed some orange, yellow and red spray paint from my other half (having an artist husband comes in handy sometimes!). If you don't have art supplies you can borrow don't panic as what I'd usually do for a small crafty project like this is buy a couple of tiny tester pots. B&Q usually have a sale basket where you can pick up pots for about 50p, but failing that you buy little own brand testers for about £2 and you only need a couple.

Step 3: Top up supplies with a trip to Hobbycratft

I made a quick trip to Hobbycraft to see if they had any good bits. There were a few good bargains and I picked up these Autumnal-looking steps that added a bit of texture and will be useful for future displays (they might even work for some festive arrangements with the addition of a bit of glitter).

Step 4: Start arranging your Autumnal display

Chicken wire in wooden trugs on mantlepiece

I used some old chicken wire which I use and re-use for these projects and scrunched it up in a couple of wooden troughs, but you can use any kind of box or container as it will be hidden when you've finished. As this was a dry arrangement, I weighted to troughs down with heavy items to make a sturdy base. If I was using real blooms I would've filled the containers with water and that would've done the same job.

Initially, I used some really tall faux grasses, but I quickly realised they were going to be too tall and I didn't love how they looked so I took them out and kept the shape more contained and rounded.

Starting with the greenery, I built up the shape I wanted, threading the stems of the foliage through the chicken wire to hold them in place. Once I'd got a rough shape that I liked, I added in some of the faux stems that I'd sprayed, followed by some more greenery in between and finally finishing with the sprayed roses and the new textured stems from Hobbycraft.

I faffed for a bit until I was happy and that was it... a super quick and simple arrangement that adds some Autumnal colour and cheer to the space. All for under £20. Let me know if you have a go and I'll share your pictures on my insta stories (@clairedouglasstyling)

The final results

Here are the final results...

I hope this was helpful.

Thanks so much for reading. I'd love to keep you up to date with future DIY, decorating, interior styling, and upcycling projects, if you would like to receive my (not more than weekly & no spamming I promise) emails then please subscribe (scroll down to the box at the bottom of the page). Why not check out some of my other posts...

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Thanks again.

Claire