its Christina from the DIY mommy calm and today I want to show you two different ways to style a mantle this is the second video in my simple decor tips series that I'm going to be posting here on my youtube channel every Wednesday last week I talked about 5 home decor essentials that I think everybody needs in their home I will link to that video somewhere up here and in the description box below and today I want to share with you a some mantle styling tips so if you have a fireplace mantel or even a shelf that can kind of function as a fireplace mantel decoratively I want to share two different ways that you can decorate it and after you've watched this video make sure to let me know in the comments below which of these stylings you liked the best and why I'm going to be sharing tons of simple decor tips on my channel here this season so make sure to subscribe to my channel and hit the bell when you subscribe to be the first to hear of my latest videos let me share with you two different ways to style and mantle and my simple mantle decor tips the first thing that I always love to do when I'm changing up my mantle take hoar for the seasons is give it a good clean remove every single thing from your mantel that you've had before and dust it and clean it this first look I'm going to call understated asymmetry so you always want to have a focal point on a mantel or a shelf so I'm using my French country inspired mirror and then I'm going to put a large jug on the left here and then I'm putting some faux pussy-willow stems inside because I kind of want to decorate this mantel for spring I'm totally in the mood for warmer weather and some more color in our home on the right side I'm putting some vintage books I tried to put a little faux succulent on top but I thought that this look kind of lacked some color so I took some fake tulip stones instead and kind of rested them on top of the vintage books so as you can see if this design is asymmetrical meaning that it doesn't match if you were to mirror it from side to side it kind of has a diagonal line going from the left down to the right and it's very very simple however there definitely still is a focal point which is a large piece in Center which I always like to include on my mantle designs so I love the little bits of color and just the understated simplicity of this asymmetrical design the second one is a little more complex but it's pretty simple to execute and it's more of a symmetrical and full design so again I'm always starting with my Center a focal point so in this case I'm using a DIY clock that I made I'll leave a link to the tutorial to make one if you want to make one yourself in the description box below so this design is more symmetrical which means that it's the same on either side so I have the focal point in the middle and then I'm using two white lanterns on either side of the mantle so I have these three pieces as kind of my anchors and then I'm filling in the space in between with some more pieces so in this case I'm using three different turquoise colored jugs and I'm putting some faux ferns inside to kind of give my mantle a nice springy fresh feeling and then I'm just filling in the spaces with some smaller items here so definitely use your creativity when you are filling your mantle with the smaller items to fill the holes so I just took some plain old white coffee mugs and I put some fake tulip stems inside of those I always like to use the rule of three and my home decor so groups of three items always looks really good so we have this symmetrical design with the large focal point in the center and the two lanterns on either side but I'm using groups of three in between the lanterns and the clock to create some interest so on the Left I have two jugs and one mug which makes a group of three and on the right I have two mugs and one jug which makes a group of three as well and again I'm just adding lots of color with the fake tulips and the ferns and I always like to step back and kind of analyze things I noticed that I probably could put some more tulips on the left side just to add some more color and balance everything a little bit more so I did that and definitely just let yourself have time to tweak things as you go I also noticed on the right that the mug at the back was hard to see so I just put a stump kind of underneath the mug to right raise it up a little bit and that makes the group of three on the right side look a little more appealing because the heights are staggered so here is the more symmetrical and full mantel design this one has kind of a more rustic and country feel to it and it's definitely more busy but I think this is the one that I'm going to keep on my mantel for my spring decor this year I really like all of the color and the texture that it gives to our living room thanks so much for watching this video today I hope you found these tips useful I would love to hear which of these designs you liked the best or if you have any mantel decorating tips that you would like to share with us I would love to hear those if you liked this video please subscribe to my channel for more tips like this and sub giy ideas in the future as well thanks so much for watching guys and I'll see you all again in my next video bye you you