DIY Mantle Project

This project has been on the To Do list for more than four years! Its a beautiful feature and an instant focal point when entering our home now. This project was a collaboration with myself as designer, sandpaperer, and painter, my husband for figuring out the technicalities and brut force, and my son with some specialty wood-working skills from a couple of earlier years of working in a cabinet shop.  My son is now a Firefighter/Paramedic, also a 2015 accomplishment! :)

This recent before picture with other house updates: the mantle always struck me as not being in proportion to the brick fireplace. We were in a quandary about what to change and our minds changed quite a bit during the four years.

Taking it way back: our “brand new“ house in July 2011. By the way, the trick to removing soot? Scrubbing Bubbles. 

Detail of the column. Designed in the middle of an isle at the home improvement store while referring to magazine cutouts, holding different trim pieces together to get the look I wanted, and making it uniquely ours.  


You May Also Like

3 Comments

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3

    Hi Carmel! Your fireplace make over is beautiful!! I love the decor on and around the mantel too! I so envy homes with fireplaces. Thats one of the few things that was on my wish list that this home didn’t have when we purchased it 20 years ago. Anyway, I love the lit Sailboat with the hanging ore behind it. It’s really a nice statement! 🙂

Leave a Reply to Maria Newell Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>