Decorative Deer Antler Mount

“Willful waste brings woeful want.” -Thomas Fuller

We acquired these deer antlers from a man who was trying to thin out his collection due to a request from his wife – we think it was more like a demand. Even though we don’t hunt or fish, we decided they were way too cool to go unused.

Hunting for sport ONLY to acquire a trophy isn’t something we support, but hunting for meat is entirely different ..and if your meat had antlers then you’ve come to the right place!

Professional Antler Mount

Done professionally, they are mounted to a wooden plaque and an antler mount form (or plate) hides the portion of the animal’s skull. Sort of winging it on this info – had to Google it but that’s how we understood it. This antler mount is basic and plain jane but there’s nothing wrong with that…

DIY Antler Alternative

We didn’t actually do a true antler mount. You might say an enhancement or an alternative – or so we like to think. You’ll have to let us know.

We drilled a hole near the top of the skull with our dremel. Then wired it up to create a little loop to hang off a nail. The wiring doesn’t have to look good because it will be covered later with only the wire loop showing. If you have a different idea to hang it, go for it. If you have decorative wall hanging hardware, all the better, but a simple nail worked for us.

“Antler Mount Form” Alternative

Our alternative was to use simple materials from around the house while keeping the color scheme in the earth tones. We used:

• Burlap fabric
• Material from an old shirt
• Leather cord
• Natural twine
• Brown ribbon
• Aluminum wire to hang…

We wrapped the fabric around the bone while trying not to cover any part of the antlers. There’s no wrong way to do it – just make it pleasing to your eye. You might want to play with the fabric to determine the look you want – flat, bunched up, padded, primitive, more tailored, etc.. We kept ours on the primitive side.

Then we simply wrapped some of the twine and cord around it and tied it off in the back. There are a couple dangly things with beads and seashells we added at the end to give it some added interest. So there’s your alternative to the stuffy, overly perfect professional version.

An extra option is to actually attach them to the log you saw in some of the photos, then you could hang the entire thing or sit it up on top of a piece of furniture or in a glass cabinet. Not to be displayed as a trophy – think of it as bringing the beauty of nature inside.

You can see how it looks on a wall in the photo below.

We tried to keep it simple and we hope it inspires you!

Update:

During my Bloody Mary last night, I decided the antlers with seashells needed feathers instead!

[Email Subscribe]