The Mantle

We bought our house a year and a half ago. And even though I love it! The family room need some storage and the fireplace wasn't even finished. They just tossed up some beautiful slate tiles and called it done. 

Well that won't do! I had visions of a cool, trimmed out white mantle to decorate and display. This is a big room and needed something to really anchor it.  

Here is a before photo. In fact this was taken the weekend after we moved in. the couches aren't even in the final place we have barely unpacked. Note the plain fireplace. 

Over the last year my Hubs and I have tossed around ideas and options for what we wanted to do. naturally I went on pinterest and found a blog that gave great photos and details on how they did it. Since this was our first big project together (we work better alone by the way!) and we both wanted step by step instructions, here is the blog that I found on pinterest;

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2013/09/home-improvement-build-your-own-fireplace-mantel-hearth-craftsman-style.html

With this vision in our heads, we went to work. Over several weekends, we planned, measured and marked the wall. I taped up plain white paper to give us the size and scale we wanted. And left it there for 2 weeks, while we made the framing and got used to the white "pretend" mantle.

These are the side pieces  all framed up. We used 2x4's they were the right depth we wanted so the whole mantle when finished would be 4" deep to the wall. 

Here is the mantle upper.  

My Hubs, having fun putting together all the framing.

We added backing to the framed pieces so we could attach those to the walls.

The rough draft of what we needed to frame and then add MDF board. 

We attached the framed "ladders" as the kids called them, with 3" screws. 

The Hubs, installing the framing. 

After the framing is installed and mounted to the wall. Next goes the MDF board, its a pressure pressed particle board that is smooth and heavy!  I'm measuring and marking it, with this project, I'm in charge of measuring and marking and the Hubs cuts and does the heavy lifting. 

MDF board is now up and we can start chalking and priming.

My helper wanted to supervise more than actually help! 

Primed and chalked, it's ready for trim. 

We added the side trim along the columns and the Mantle top. 

Adding the braces for the crown molding. I'm very excited to get this almost done! 

It's really coming together and I love how great it already looks. 

Next we chalk and fill in every single crack, and around each piece of trim. This is a very intense job. I'm very focused! 

The  trim and crown molding is all done, and chalked. I love it. now to paint and call it a day! 

The black fabric is a  heavy duty outdoor canvas, that I right now have up to block the draft for the propane fireplace. I'm going to sew on magnets so we can easily remove or put up to keep the family room warmer. 

TA DA!! It's all done. It took us 4 weekends. I love it so much and now I can't wait to decorate for Christmas!