When you take everything out of your house in order to make way for Christmas decorations, it always seems to me rather stale to put the same things out in the same exact place they were before Christmas.  I guess in the excitement of a new year ahead, I like everything to seem fresh and new, not just the calendar on the side of my fridge.

So a little chango presto was definitely necessary.  I started with an item I purchased in the January sales.  Really Linda Barker always has a few nice bits and when I saw these ceramic lidded jars marked from £20.95 down to £9.45 for a set of two, I had to get them.  I love their greige colour and their size was great at 24cm high.

Having a set of two, I could have displayed them together (and I may indeed do that in the future) but I thought for now, I would put one on my mantle in the dining room and one in the living room (I’ll get to that one soon).

But this of course, necessitated moving everything else around.

I’m not brilliant with tableaux, I’ll be the first to admit it.  Finding a balance and creating a fluid line for your eyes takes me a long time and even once I get it to a point that sort of works, I start doubting myself.  It’s part of the reason I am way too dependant upon symmetry and I still fall upon it when I have frustrated every option to create a pleasing collection of objects.

However, I feel the need to challenge myself to get away from symmetry and learn how to create object displays without falling back on my easy solution.

So here’s what my mantle looked like before (I think I did okay in terms of getting away from symmetry in this instance and felt quite happy with this one):

And this is what it looks like now.  It probably leans more toward a symmetrical display but as they are not identical items, I think it’s okay and doesn’t look too cluttered (another one of my problems):

And of course, as I have a new fancy shmancy camera that I’m still playing with, a few detail shots…

Even posting these pictures today is making me think I need to move things around a bit!  I’m happy to hear if anyone has any suggestions…  By the way, have I mentioned I love comments?  (that was a hint, by the way)

One of the things that I struggle with is the mirror above the mantle.  I feel like I have this very distinct LINE above which things become much trickier when they are tall (the line being the bottom of the mirror).  The other challenge is having to display the little stone wall puzzles.  I really love them and I don’t want to put them away as they are one of the very few decorative items that W had in his home that is still out (I know I’m a horrible girlfriend) but they HAVE to stay on the mantel because at the moment, I don’t have any other display areas that they can go that would be high enough that the cats or visiting children can’t knock them over.  So they always need to be worked in.

Going tall-short-tall-short-tall on the mantle seemed to work but maybe there’s a better way?  Do you feel the need to rearrange your everyday items once the glut of Christmas decorating is removed?  Or do you feel comfort in putting tried n’ true items in their regular spots?  Have you revamped your mantel lately?  Do tell…

I’ll be showing you the small rearrange in my living room as well soon so stay tuned!

All images my own.