I loved our fireplace renovation we did in our Charlotte house so much that when we moved to Asheville, my mind was already filling up with ideas for the new one. It was pretty bare, nothing wrong with it at all, but just kind of minimal. I felt like it had a lot of potential to be upgraded to fit the aesthetic of our house and to make it feel cozier. We followed the same general plans as the mantle we made for the Charlotte house (which I will share below), but as we went along we realized this time it would be even easier. I’ll talk you through it all! Here’s how to update your fireplace with a DIY wood mantle.
The Process
The Before
All transformations need a before picture, of course! Like I said, nothing really wrong with it. I actually like the simple moldings and the pop of black…it matches the rest of the house nicely. Originally we thought about removing the existing mantle and putting the new one in its place, but then we quickly realized the entire facade seemed to be one piece. So taking just the mantle off would be next to impossible without really ruining it all.
Then we moved on to the idea of just building a hollow wood mantle and putting it over top of the current one, so as to hide it but then we wouldn’t need to remove it. The problem with this was that while it was less complicated than option #1, it was still fairly complicated to ensure we cut the boards just right so they’d fit seamlessly. The other problem with this is that it doesn’t help fix one of the issues that I *did* have with the fireplace, and that’s the height of it. It’s too short for the height of the wall & the ceiling in this room. Or at least it felt that way to me. So if we just put a mantle over top of it, it wouldn’t make it any taller.
So then we moved onto option #3, which thankfully not only fixed the height problem, but it was also by far the easiest of the three options to complete. This option simply required us to build the mantle and to put it on top of the existing one, drilling some screws up through the bottom to secure it in place.
This option did not immediately come to my mind because I couldn’t envision how it would look. Luckily Pinterest has just about everything, and I located a picture of a wood mantle on top of another mantle that made me feel confident it would look good!
Revisions
As I mentioned, we didn’t remake our Charlotte mantle to a “T”. I wanted it to be a little less tall & bulky for a slightly more modern look (our CLT mantle was 8 inches and this one is 5.5), and I wanted to be a different wood stain. And oh man, the stain. That was probably the most challenging part of this entire project was getting the stain right. Long story short on that, we ended up going with Minwax Special Walnut. We just did one coat of this and I love how it turned out.
Here is the direct link to the directions we used in Charlotte. We did not use the wood veneer on either mantle and I don’t think it’s necessary. Just a personal preference but it’s one less thing to buy and have to do! To make it not as tall as the Charlotte mantle, we used a 1″x5.5″ piece of lumber instead of a 1″x8″ board. Theoretically you could make the mantle be however tall you’d like it to be if you have the right tools, but that was just the next size smaller so we grabbed that! We also didn’t use glue this time, and instead just nailed everything together.
We also added a piece of wood into the center of mantle just for some extra support through the middle.
Just a note: It’s also really important to get straight boards…one of the first boards we got ended up not being as straight as we thought and it didn’t fit properly since it was kind of warped. So definitely check for that as best you can at the store before you buy! Sometimes it’s hard to know before you actually try to put it together, but just do the best you can!
Last tip: Measure, measure again, and measure one last time to make sure you’re making your cuts in the right place otherwise you’ll be heading back to the store again for more lumber!
More Details
Type of wood used: Pine *please note that different types of stain will look different on different species of wood, so if you aren’t using Pine you likely won’t get the same appearance as we did. Good news is, Pine is usually the cheapest if you want to replicate!
Tools we used: Hammer, Nails, Drill & Screws (just for attaching it to existing mantle), Saw (we just have a handsaw)
Cost of the project: Roughly about $60-80 for materials depending on the size and type of lumber you get. Definitely more economical than buying a pre-made mantle, however that is an option if you don’t want to deal with the construction!
The After
Once the mantle was stained & assembled, all that was left was to put it on! We measured to center it up over the fireplace and then drilled three screws up through the bottom of the existing mantle into the wood mantle to secure it in place. (This was not what we did for the Charlotte mantle. This post shares how to hang it into a brick fireplace.)
And that’s pretty much it!! I’m so happy with how it turned out. Now I am just on a mission to redecorate the mantle and get some new decor pieces…I’m thinking some art and other things that will give it a bit more of a modern vibe. This mirror is much too small for this space so I need to definitely do some updating here! I’m on the hunt 🙂 I will definitely share what I find, so stay tuned for that!
xo,
Bess
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