Use your summer vacation as inspiration for decorating your summer mantel! Gather souvenirs and travel mementos to create unique mantel decor.

Travel Inspired Summer Mantel

Use your summer vacation as inspiration for decorating your summer mantel! Gather souvenirs and travel mementos to create unique mantel decor.

With Memorial Day just around the corner, I am thinking about summer decorating already! Total transparency—some years I switch up my decor for summer and some years I leave my spring things out until—ahem—fall. But this year I had a fun reason to put together a summer mantel! My good friend Amy from My Life from Home has organized a Decorate Your Mantel Series and today a bunch of us bloggers are sharing ideas for summer mantel decor!

As I was brainstorming ideas, I kept coming back to this oversized wood plank map art I made a few years ago. I’m not one to do a lot of red, white and blue decor, and that’s when it struck me that I could do a summer vacation spin. So, inspired by nostalgia of packing up the car and heading out on a cross-country adventure, I roamed around our house gathering up souvenirs and mementos that the hubs and I have collected on our vacations through the years. I arranged them on our mantel around my oversized map art to create a fun travel-inspired summer mantel.

Use your summer vacation as inspiration for decorating your summer mantel! Gather souvenirs and travel mementos to create unique mantel decor.

I draped this simple patriotic fabric garland across the map to give it some extra summery flair.

Use your summer vacation as inspiration for decorating your summer mantel! Gather souvenirs and travel mementos to create unique mantel decor.

Use your summer vacation as inspiration for decorating your summer mantel! Gather souvenirs and travel mementos to create unique mantel decor.

On the other side of the mantel, I displayed a few different souvenirs from trips we’ve taken, like a postcard from Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort, hand-painted art we bought from a vendor on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, a souvenir bat from the Louisville Slugger Factory and an “Aloha” sign we picked up on our honeymoon in Maui.

Use your summer vacation as inspiration for decorating your summer mantel! Gather souvenirs and travel mementos to create unique mantel decor.

Use your summer vacation as inspiration for decorating your summer mantel! Gather souvenirs and travel mementos to create unique mantel decor.

Use your summer vacation as inspiration for decorating your summer mantel! Gather souvenirs and travel mementos to create unique mantel decor.

Use your summer vacation as inspiration for decorating your summer mantel! Gather souvenirs and travel mementos to create unique mantel decor.

Use your summer vacation as inspiration for decorating your summer mantel! Gather souvenirs and travel mementos to create unique mantel decor.

This is definitely one of the more casual mantels I’ve done over the years (you can find my most recent spring mantel here, last fall’s mantel here, and last summer’s mantel here), but I think it’s a fun change!

How are you decorating your mantel this summer?

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Use your summer vacation as inspiration for decorating your summer mantel! Gather souvenirs and travel mementos to create unique mantel decor.

Decorate Your Mantel Series

Decorate Your Mantel Series: Summer Edition

Looking for more summer mantel decorating ideas? We’ve got you covered! Click the thumbnails below to see even more mantels, ideas and inspiration!



22 thoughts on “Travel Inspired Summer Mantel

  1. Tee @ Beauteeful Living

    What a fun theme for your fireplace mantel! I love that Aloha sign and all those souvenir items you picked up during your travels. Man, I’d love to return to Maui one day soon. Thanks for sharing this adorable mantel!

  2. Kim

    Emily, I love this idea! How fun it must be passing by this mantel and all of the memories displayed on it. I love the red, white and blue garland on your map art. Perfect for summer!
    Kim recently posted…Saturday Showcase {May}My Profile

  3. Carol ("Mimi")

    What a terrific idea for a summer mantel! I love the travel memorabilia that you’ve assembled for your mantel vignette. I’m a big believer in the concept that home decor should ideally have meaning for the homeowner — something from your own experience, something that reminds you of people and places in your life.
    Carol (“Mimi”) recently posted…38 Ways to Love Outdoor LivingMy Profile

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