Creative Ways to Incorporate Deer Antlers Into Your Interior
From wall mounts to repurposed coat racks and even custom chandeliers, deer antlers offer a range of possibilities for adding rustic character to your home. Whether you've gathered them from hunts or found them while hiking, these decor projects can put them to use throughout various rooms.
By Parker Green
You can display deer antlers in the home.
Whether you've brought them home from a recent hunt or stumbled upon them during a walk outdoors, deer antlers can serve as remarkably adaptable decorative elements. They fit into numerous spots around a home, including a side table in the living area or a handmade coat rack by the front door. Although they don't work well for many tabletop arrangements, antlers can be striking when mounted on walls and can be suspended from the ceiling for dramatic effect if your space allows.
Tabletop Deer Antler Decor
Think of deer antlers as abstract sculptures and place them on different flat surfaces throughout your home. Typically, the antlers shouldn't hang past the edge of the surface, though you can disregard this guideline if the look appeals to you.
Dresser: Place an antler with a flat _pedicle --_ the base section where it once connected to the deer's skull -- on the left or right side of your dresser. If the antler is too top heavy to stand upright, set it on its side so most of the tines rest above the dresser's surface. Slip a few candles just beneath the tines, or use the tines to hold necklaces.
Dining table: Take a wide, tall glass container and fill it with river stones, then push the pedicle of an antler into the stones. For a larger antler, suspend small tea lights from the tines.
Mantel: Put a pair of antlers in the center of your mantel and arrange other rustic-style items around them, such as oil lanterns, picture frames made from reclaimed wood, or a smaller antique mirror.
Buffet: Showcase a pair of large antlers at the center of your dining room buffet. Balance the arrangement by hanging artwork or placing pillar candles to the left and right of the antlers.
Mounted Antler Display Ideas
Wall-mounting is a traditional approach to displaying shed antlers at home, and it suits deer antlers especially well. However, the standard plaque or glass case isn't your only choice – plenty of alternatives exist.
Do-it-yourself plaque: Store-bought plaques frequently carry a hunting-lodge vibe, and achieving the right proportion between the antlers and the plaque can be tricky. Instead, build your own using reclaimed wood or lumber from local hardware stores. For proper sizing, select wood that is one-third to two-thirds the width of the antler's spread.
Floating mount: Plaques work fine, but they may make the antlers stand out more than you'd prefer. If the skull is still attached, use a _skull hooker_ -- a device that mounts flat against the wall and includes connections for easy skull mounting, sold online and at some larger hunting retailers. For loose deer antlers, press them against the wall and mark the wall right where the tines and beam make contact. Install eyelet hooks at those marks and fasten the antlers to the wall using thin zip ties. Cut the ties and conceal them with leather twine.
Double-Duty Ways to Display Shed Antlers
If you're short on space or not fond of decorative clutter, you can still showcase shed antlers while giving them a practical purpose.
Coat rack: Attach a smaller antler shed with several tines to the wall beside your entry door using a secure eyelet hook driven into a stud and a zip tie or twine method. This creates one of the more intriguing coat racks your guests are likely to encounter.
Curtain tiebacks: Mount small sheds with two to five tines on the left and right sides of a window to create custom curtain tiebacks. Drill straight through the pedicle of each antler and use long screws or toggle bolts to fasten them to the wall.
Chandelier: Simpler than it may seem, gather a collection of deer antlers to build a one-of-a-kind chandelier.
