Until last fall I was the owner of the ugliest fireplace I have ever seen. As you can see in the photos it was a brick surround with bricks sticking out as the mantle. A foot above it were niches that were an attempt at southwestern modern? It was hideous! I wanted to paint the brick to match the walls when we moved in, but my mom thought I was crazy. Instead, after a couple of years, I painted the walls a terra cottta to match the brick so the fireplace would disappear! I had lived with this room the way it was for ten years, and last year I just couldn't take it anymore.
My wonderful husband is an artist and graphic designer, not a carpenter,
but years of whining about my dream mantle and buying him power tools
for every occasion finally paid off! We weren't really sure how to
begin building the mantle. Should we remove the brick or build over it? In the end we
decided to use the brick as part of the framing. I was absolutely giddy
while shopping for the lumber. Luckily standard size lumber was perfect
for our project and very little cutting was necessary.
The mantle went together like a puzzle, starting with the top and
working down the sides and across the front. I was like an impatient child checking every 20
minutes to see how far he had come. We decided on plain trim so the
mantle wouldn't compete with what I wanted to display. I would have
liked a travertine surround, but it didn't fit the budget so I covered
the brick with drywall compound and faux painted it as stone. I love the
end result!
The niches that bothered me so much before, make sense now that they start at the top of the mantle. We painted the room a soft gray and the cream and white of the fireplace are beautiful against it.
I love my
new mantle and look forward to decorating it for years to come!
That made all the difference! Looks so good!
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