DIY FIREPLACE MANTEL

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Hello-hello! Time for an easy but great DIY today.

Few years ago, to be exact, 2.5 years ago, we’ve decided to take our beautiful white mantel down and build up the wall with stacked stone above the fireplace. Do you want to know how I feel about it now? I am sad… I wish we did not do it. It’s too late to cry about it now, so we just have to deal with what we have, right?  It is amazing how our style is forming, changing and developing throughout the years. I probably would have loved that beautiful white mantel better today ha. Bummer!

I found an old photo of our very first living room decor….this photo was taken about 5 years ago, way before I even had a thought about writing about our projects.

My super handy father helped us to build the stacked stone fireplace wall. It was a big project and it definitely gives the room a totally different look.

When we built the wall up we hadn’t really thought about adding a mantel to it. I guess I just wanted to see it done and not to worry about adding any extra work to the project.

Since then I always complained that I have no place to showcase my pretty crafts and DIY for each season. I really wanted that mantel…right before Christmas last year.

Yep …and my hubby was up for helping me to build that mantel.

Have a I told you that I wouldn’t be able to DIY everything without this guy.?

I think we make a good team together. I bring the ideas and the vision and he helps me to get it done…just perfect!

Here is the look of that pretty BLAH stacked stone wall without the mantel.

Ehhh… plain-plain- plain and nothing interesting.

I visioned a big, chunky white mantel with that darker color stacked stone.

Building a mantel, shelving unit was actually pretty simple. Putting it up on that stacked stone wall had made us think a bit as we weren’t sure how we are going to put up the mantel on the wall.

To build the mantel box:

we used 1×8 wood panels ( we did not need to cut it to size as  it fit our wall perfectly)

As a first step, we glued the edges together with Elmer’s wood glue.

Then we pushed them together with a clamp and let it dry.

On a few spots we nailed them together with tiny brad nails. Not very visible but the arrow shows below where is the tiny nail head.

Again, building the box was pretty quick and easy.

We sanded all the sides of the box and painted it with white paint.

Now we only had to figure out a way to add this box on that uneven stacked stone wall. First we wanted to take off a few rows of stacked stones but that idea was quickly forgotten.

My hubby came up with this idea to drill a hole and secure up  a 2 x 4 wood on the wall that would hold the box that we built. Yeah, but how do you secure that wood panel on the fireplace wall?

 Hub found these butterfly anchor screws at Home Depot that opens up inside the wall. He drill a big hole on the wall then we pushed that special screw in.

Tada…2 x 4, our base is up on the stacked stone wall.!Yay!

As a last step we set our beautiful white box on the 2 x 4 and with a few screws we attached them together.

Here is the end result.

Big, chunky, white beauty!

I am really pleased with the outcome. The fireplace looks so much better with this white mantel.

What do you think? Isn’t it much better than before? That nice chunky mantel holds lots of decor things and my art that I shared on Insta when I made it.(follow me on INSTAGRAM to get a peek of what I am working)

Here is a picture of our pretty Christmas-y mantel

Now I can change the theme up anytime I want…even every week-haha:-)

If you liked this project, pin it for later to remember!

I hope this post inspires you to make your own mantel if you don’t have one.

Here is another great and easy DIY for ya to check out:

DIY RECLAIMED WOOD BUFFET- IKEA HACK

Have a great weekend my dears!