How to Hang Sleds as Winter Decor

I love transforming our little cottage for the holidays, but I usually don’t mess much with my everyday wall decor across the holidays. But my huge vintage map of my home county just didn’t really scream Christmas enough for me this year. So I swapped out all of my formal living room wall decor with vintage sleds, and today, I’m sharing exactly how to hang sleds as winter decor in your own home.

When I stumbled on three vintage sleds at a yard sale last year, I knew I needed to add them to my winter decor collection. Never having sledded a day in my life because I live in Florida, I still see sleds as the necessary part of the most quintessential “winter activity.”

The problem was that I just couldn’t wrap my mind around how to actually hang then on the wall.

Lucky for us, our walls are made out of solid wood, so the weight of the sleds wasn’t a particular problem. For people with drywall, obviously ensuring you’re utilizing a stud and the proper hanging equipment is essential.

I knew I wanted them to be taken as an entire “artistic” unit, so we decided to hang them relatively close together. Our first attempt was just a smidge too far apart, so Rob enthusiastically (read: sarcasm) rehung the outer two sleds in a way that fit my vision.

Rob had an entire roll of seatbelt webbing from his days as an upholsterer, so we created a hanging mechanism by securely tying each end of the seatbelt webbing to the carriage underneath the sled. For this part, some good old-fashioned rope will also do the trick. It needs to be a material that can withstand the pressure from the weight of the sled without warping, fraying, etc.

From there, Rob had three hooks that he attached to the wall, and he simply looped our makeshift hanger over the hook.

They haven’t budged, even when I decided to add a few fun pieces to dress them up a bit.

I searched high and low for some vintage skates to use on one of them but just couldn’t find an affordable pair. I settled for a thrifted wreath, decorating it with some velvet ribbon and a pair of vintage thrifted bells. On one side, I draped a very budget faux garland across the front and used a vintage Santa hat on the other. I was really interested in highlighting the red on each sled.

I absolutely love how it all turned out. It’s even possible that I’ll shed a tear when I take it all down in January. But for now, it looks especially pretty at night by the glow of the vintage ceramic tree I found at the thrift store last month.

I’ll be sharing more scenes of our Christmas cottage right on through Christmas. Be sure to check back Wednesday for a tour of our Christmas kitchen.