A New Mantle

[Air Force WdWrkr]

Hey everyone.  It's probably been at least 7 years since I last posted (having 4 kids and three moves in that time really cuts down on woodworking) - but I finally have something I wanted to share.

Before I painted our living room, I wanted to build a new mantle.  With so many young kids in the small house, I couldn't deal with demoing the brick and all the mess that came with that.  My solution was to encase the brick and built the mantel in place.  I borrowed some ideas from a bunch of different places and this is what I came up with.  Its poplar plywood and 1/4" strips with paint grade molding all from the orange box.

Thanks for looking!

BEFORE (There used to be a wall of mirrors in the space between the windows, which also used to have only simple case molding.



Top Face


A little help and side leg face.


Rough face/base complete


Ooops, skipped a few shots


The final result



Thanks for looking!

[blackhat]

Nice. BTW, little kids are great sawdust movers aren't they.

[jteneyck]

What an improvement.  Well done.

John

[Bob10]

Really nice finished product and I like that you found a work around that demo to keep the project from becoming a nightmare

[Kansas City Fireslayer]

Looks great. I like how you left the inside brick border.

[R Clark]

I'm a fan of the brick, too.

Thanks for the pics.  I'm getting ready to retrofit an antique fireplace mantle/surround to our modern gas fireplace in our 12 year old home.  Your pics are helping the idea train get moving.

[fredhargis]

Well done, another vote for the small brick exposure...really turned out nice!

[AgGEM]

Very

Ag

[Air Force WdWrkr]

Thanks, I'm glad it helped.  I took inspiration from some of these posts I found online.

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2013/09/hom...style.html

https://www.skiltools.com/How-To/Documen...Mantel.pdf

[tomsteve]

looks great!!
but imo the best part is the lil helper!