Another addition in the Family Room Refresh!! A while back when I decided to paint the brick around our fireplace I also removed the mantel. It was never really my style. The fireplace sat naked for weeks, as I pondered what to put in it’s place. I toyed with the idea of building a surround, something tailored and traditional, or just a simple floating mantel. My mind just kept going back to the latter, so that’s what we went with. And I’m soooo glad we did!! I love it!!
I had considered adding corbels, and I may still do that if I find some I love, but for now I love it as is!!
The DIY was not as hard as I thought it might be. Sometimes I can dive right into a DIY and get ‘er done, and other times I’m a bit intimidated. I don’t know why, but some things get me psyched out!
We started by attaching a ledger board to the brick. We attached the appropriate anchors into the mortar in between the bricks, and then attached the board with screws.
Screwing into the anchors and into the two pieces of wood on either end. (That puppy ain’t goin nowhere!)
Then, we attached six 2″x4″x6″ pieces along the ledger board to help support some of the weight of the mantel.
You can see that we really weren’t concerned about them being spaced exactly even – no one is going to see them remember.
Then we moved on to building the actually mantel piece. You are building a box that is missing one side.
We used 1″x8″ pieces of basic white board for this. This is the same wood that I used in our entryway. I wanted some character to the wood since I was staining it, so this was a great economical choice. I used two 6′ pieces and one 8′ piece which cost me around $25.
This was my first time to use my nail gun, and man did it make this project easier!! Each joint was glued and nailed to make sure it was secure.
In an effort to have as few cut end pieces showing as possible, I did this.
The two side pieces (which are actually the top and bottom) were cut shorter to accommodate the end pieces (the width of the wood shorter on each end).
This way, from the front and the ends – the most visible parts, there is only one end of the board showing. Clear as mud right? I hope so!! Here is the dry run before staining :).
I filled a few tiny gaps with stainable wood filler, and everything got a good sanding. I smoothed all the edges and corners really good. Then I stained it with a dark walnut stain, and topped it off with a couple of coats of polyurethane.
Hanging it was super easy! Slip it over the supports, and attach the mantel to the ledger board with screws. We made our ledger shorter than the actual mantel to allow room to adjust the placement of the mantel when we were mounting it, which was very helpful to get the desired placement.
I snapped this shot right after we finished hanging it. Such sweet satisfaction to DIY!!
Loving the finished product and can’t wait to get it styled up for spring!!
Our family room is coming along. It really is feeling more and more like a space I want to stay a while. And, that’s a nice feeling.
Looks so nice!!! I love the color of the fireplace too!!
Paige.Rose
From
http://www.TheQuaintSanctuary.blogspot.com
I’m so glad I stumbled across this post. The advice to leave an overhang (the width of the boards) in order to easily accommodate the end pieces is so smart! I’ve read numerous tutorials, & for those who do not make miter cuts, their method is unnecessarily difficult & doesn’t look as nice! I can’t believe I could find no other that did this. Thanks, again!
Glad this was helpful!!
Love the new mantel! Looks really good with the white brick. Great job!
Looks fantastic!! 🙂
What a timely post! We need a new mantle and yours is just wonderful. Thank you for the lovely inspiration. Have a wonderful weekend.
I love this! I love the stain & the rustic look. Well done!
I would love for you to stop by my blog tomorrow and join our Something to Talk About link party!
Have a great week!
Karen
Love it! I did some floating shelves in my basement with a similar design as this – yours turned out great! Thanks for sharing over at the Pretty Preppy Party! xx, b @ being-blanca.com
Denise yes yes yes yes! Your new mantle looks so awesome!! I love it!! The stain on it against the brick, the rustic and simple design, love love love!!!!! And great tutorial. We have a similar mantle but it is painted white and it runs all the way across our built ins too. I need to tweak it in some way and now you've got me thinking about stripping and staining. Hmmm. Well enjoy all your work in here because your room is looking fabulous my friend! (Love the ottoman fabric too!)
Denise, that turned out fabulous!! At first glance I thought it was a rustic old beam! Your family room transformation is coming together so nicely, wonderful job! Thanks for sharing at Best of the Nest!
Purely because I’m a belt & braces kinda guy, those six 2″x4″x6″ pieces you screwed to the ledger board, I would’ve screwed them on first, drill, glue and 4″ screws
You are not wrong. That definitely would have been easier and if I were building it now I would probably do that. This was one of our first DIY builds so we were winging it just a bit :). But, the mantel has held strong all these years with zero issue!