From the moment we moved into our house, I wanted to add a mantel to our fireplace. But as you know, we had a lot of other projects to tackle first. But over winter break we were finally able to tackle adding a mantel to our fireplace. And I am so so happy with the way the mantel turned out! I mean really…look at the character in that thing!
Mr. MK found this awesome barn beam to create the mantel. Here is a before picture of the beam before any sanding, etc. took place.
Mr. MK had some work getting it stable enough to mount to the wall and lots of finishing prep. The rock on our fireplace also juts out in certain spaces so Mr. MK had to router out the back of the beam so it would sit seamlessly on the rock. Once it was ready to mount, we polyed it, no stain necessary. Here’s the beam with a fresh coat of poly. The poly really brought out all the character of the beam
Mounting the mantel wasn’t the fastest process. That brick is thick! We had to drill three holes through the brick in order to ensure the beam would be mounted on the brick securely. But the extra work was worth the finished product!
Once the mantel was up, I combined some decor pieces I already had with some I picked up at the store. It feels great to have another area of our house decorated.
The Finished Mantel
The best part and what took us the longest to problems solve, was the lights. We integrated LED lights (affiliate link) that connect with GoogleHome into the beam. So we can control the lights easily through our GoogleHub. The lights can be turned on and off, dimmed, and the color can also be switched. The lights just add that extra touch!
I’m so happy with the way it turned out! What do you think?!
Update! Check out this post to see the full before and after.
