Wooden DIY Mantle Project

When we moved in we fell in love with our fireplace wall...but the mantle, a bit small for my taste just seems to be camouflaged and didn't show it's best self.

So...I hinted another fun project to my dear handy hubby and the following photos will show you what my man went through until we were happy with the final result! 

The first sketches we drew and visions in our head were thus that a large chunky (or so it seemed) piece of wood would cover the current stone mantle shelf. A large box was created and after putting it online asking friends what they though we were building next...a coffin...lol, okay but nope.

A single sheet of 1X16 Red Oak was perfectly cut, sanded and pieced together. It was stained, we mixed two stains together before applying (I have no idea what color they were, sorry) and then we placed said mantle into place...

After taking an online poll, trying out our new 'box' for a few days, we decided we overestimated how big we thought the mantle should be. So my sweet dear hubby cut down his masterpiece a few different times, taking off the entire bottom section that hid the original mantle corbels. 

He also glued in a section of 4X4 that sits just below the original stone mantle, inside the wood mantle, so it's quite solid but removable if future buyers wanted to go back to the original stone.

I love that the bottom is now open, so that we can hang command hooks inside for stockings, a fun alternative to stocking holders that are heavy and sit on top of the mantle (and are a bit dangerous with small children, I might add).

I was so excited to decorate the new mantle that I didn't get around to adding a thin coat of Poly until this Spring and now we are ready for Easter!