What does your mantelpiece say about you?
Everyone gets worked up about how much you can tell from a bookshelf, but of all the areas of a home, the mantelpiece is one of the most revealing about its occupants. That narrow ledge above the fireplace might be one of the smallest spaces in an interior but its messaging is sizeable. Is it completely bare? Decorated with a solitary vase? A shrine to family photographs? Artfully styled with an assortment of carefully curated objets? Or overflowing with a mass of cards, invitations, keys, unpaid bills and random bits of ephemera?
This fascination with mantelpieces feels like a very British phenomenon. Fireplaces have always provided a natural focal point to a room, so whatever they are decorated with tends to invite scrutiny. The great houses of the medieval and Tudor periods featured elaborately carved overmantels emblazoned with family crests, in an unabashed display of ostentation and wealth. Georgian households tended to have a reasonably restrained approach to mantelpiece decoration — in general they were kept relatively bare, featuring a clock, perhaps, or a pair of urns or bronzes.
It was during the 19th century that the fashion for a cluttered interior really took off — the Victorians’ penchant for ornament and excess meant that china collections, framed photographs, lamps, candlesticks and curios of all description mushroomed across the country’s mantelpieces. The Edwardians dialled it back somewhat, but the foundations were still laid for a busier approach, which has persisted in varying degrees ever since.
Contemporary interiors can be quite polarised when it comes to mantelpieces. On the one hand, central heating means that there’s often no fireplace and thus no mantelpiece at all, and the main focus of the sitting room has long since switched — to the television or art. At the opposite end of the spectrum, mantelpieces have become more carefully styled than ever, not least because anyone brave enough to share pictures of their home on social media opens up their houses to a wider — and more critical — audience than at any other point in history. In turn, that audience, even if they aren’t sharing pictures of their own homes, are influenced by those who do.
“The mantelpiece can provide the perfect spot to showcase beloved objects — a sort of stage,” says Elizabeth Metcalfe, author of the upcoming book, New English Interiors: At Home with Today’s Creatives (Frances Lincoln). Throughout the book, the mantelpieces of her subjects seem to tell a story of their own. “Whether playing host to a considered collection of ceramics or a mishmash of treasured knick-knacks, the classic English mantelpiece is defined by its layers and the fact it’s usually deeply personal. It’s a place to experiment, to create a little vignette that might represent the entire interior to which it belongs.”
For the fashion stylist and designer Sarah Corbett-Winder, who features in Metcalfe’s book, the mantelpiece at her home in north London is used as a display for her much-loved collection of Staffordshire dogs. “My mother also has a Staffordshire dog addiction, so I grew up surrounded by them,” she says. “Then I started collecting them, always in pairs. I love the impact that they have, especially in the sitting room. They bring luck and look after me. They also add humour and are a great conversation starter. I’ve arranged them facing towards each other — it’s more friendly. Every pair of dogs comes from a different place — some were inherited, some were gifts or wedding presents, and others I bought myself, from auctions or eBay. I love all these memories being together, right in the centre of our house.”
In south London, the artist, ceramicist and designer Gavin Houghton has created a colourful, highly personal home that’s filled with intriguing objects — a glimpse at any of the mantelpieces in his house is a snapshot of what has recently captured his interest. His current display includes several old tiles and a vase by Michaela Gall. “The mantels are in constant flux — I’m always changing what’s on them, especially the ceramics,” he says. “I often put a new piece that I’ve made on my bedroom mantel so I can enjoy it before it gets sold and I like to prop up a new picture that I’ve bought or painted to give it real thought.”
At Houghton’s home in Tangier, Morocco, his fireplace looks entirely different to the neoclassical wooden pieces he sourced for his London house; it’s made from eye-catching patterned tiles painted by local craftsmen. “Fireplaces in Morocco are not so central to the room as they’re used much less frequently,” he says. “The one I have is set in a corner, which is quite a common feature. Above it, I’ve hung an Alexander Calder mobile — I love his work — and there’s a large blue-and-white jar sitting on top of the fireplace. It’s one of the many pieces of Moroccan ceramics that I use as still-life props for the painting holidays that I organise out here.”
In LA, fashion designer Johnson Hartig has created a space that’s a riot of colour and pattern, with maximalism at the heart of his aesthetic. His orange-hued fireplace, inset with zigzags of green and white tiles, is no exception. A pair of stylised palm trees were painted directly on to the wall above it to add height, and flank an antique oil painting. Like Houghton, he frequently changes what’s on display. His current line-up includes two Chinese lamps, a vase by FT columnist Luke Edward Hall, antique Persian and Islamic tiles, a number of small candles, 19th-century oak candlesticks and — just in case that wasn’t enough — several potted topiaries.
“It’s an easy way to keep things interesting,” he says. “Although, I always keep a pair of lamps on the mantel — they illuminate the other objects as well as casting a great glow on the ceiling.”
In Sussex, Kathy Crisp has a bedroom mantelpiece arranged with objects that evoke “happy memories and adventures”, she says. Favourite items include a lampshade that she made out of a much-loved 1950s silk blouse, a photograph of her as a baby with her late mother, and a vase she bought on her first visit to Charleston House in 1995. That vase would be particularly prophetic; she now works as a conservation cleaner at Charleston.
Unsurprisingly, the former home of the Bloomsbury artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant has some intriguing mantelpieces of its own — such as in the studio, where invitations, postcards and newspaper clippings tell tales of parties, jaunts and friends. They jostle for space alongside family photographs and homemade pottery, while at the centre stands a small travel clock that was given to Duncan Grant by the Russian ballerina Lydia Lopokova.
While the minimal approach is certainly easier when it comes to dusting, there’s something compelling about a thoughtfully arranged display. Both decorative and deeply personal, it’s an opportunity to intrigue, amuse or reminisce.
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