Skip to main content

Mantel of Inspiration

Mantels are a toughy for most and I am no exception! My mantel is wide but not very deep. To top it off, the whole back wall is brick and the mantel itself was very dark brown wood slab. Since my husband is dead set against changing the whole thing out, I had to work with what was there.

So, I whitewashed the mantel with a white pickling glaze. Had to do it two times to brighten it up. Oh, and I've played with the accessories a bajillion times and it never seems quite right. Or, my taste changes. Or, I just want to switch things up.

I forget, I also added a wood scrolly thingy to the front of the mantel to jazz it up a little. Painted it a medium brown and white washed it and glued it up. Really made a huge difference. The picture does not do it justice as it was a major change. And, it was before the bloggy world embraced me and I did not take pictures of everything!



Linking up to thenester.com mantel party.

Comments

  1. KimMalkFebruary 27, 2010 at 10:01 PM

    Hey there - it looks like you're having fun swappin' around the house! Nice job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kathy@theshebearofelevenFebruary 28, 2010 at 12:35 AM

    Happens at my house, too. One thing leads to another!! Like your mantel, good choices.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Funky Junk InteriorsFebruary 28, 2010 at 3:02 AM

    Ohhh I totally do the swap all the time. Makes for a brand new house for free. :)

    The mirror and wreath look right at home above the fireplace! Great choice.

    Thanks for linking up to SNS!
    FJ Donna

    ReplyDelete
  4. VictoriaMarch 2, 2010 at 6:01 PM

    It's always good to switch things up once in a while! I love your wreath:)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lia at Petite Little BeeMarch 3, 2010 at 11:46 AM

    How fun. Thanks for sharing. Cheers, Lia

    ReplyDelete
  6. Southern GalApril 9, 2010 at 7:42 AM

    My husband loves our brick fireplace also. He won't hear of changing it out. I'm going through the links and finding those with brick fireplaces to get ideas. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for visiting my nest. I love to hear from my visitors! Leave your comments here:

Popular posts from this blog

When your plan really isn't your plan after all.

I don't know about you but before I start a project, I start the vision for the project. Sometimes way before the project starts! But often, that vision changes multiple times before the project is finished. Heck sometimes I don't really even have a plan I just start painting or tearing out stuff and sometimes I just change my mind. But most times, it is because what I really want to do, for one reason or another, I can't. Take our basement bathroom for example. In this case I had a basic plan and everything that could go wrong, went wrong. As I was thinking about the bathroom I realized I hated it in the furnace room to begin with. I also hated the sauna and shower the previous owners had installed at the other end of the basement (which we never use). So I put plans in motion to get rid of the sauna. This would free up a big chunk of space and my plan was to make it a full bath at that end of the basement as it already had a shower. Several months later, and multiple fail...
1 comment
Read more

DIY Kitchen Counter Beadboard Treatment

We have lived in our house for six years this month and every month of every year I have hated the back of this bar area! It is sooo blah and sooo oak  and sooo country looking. So, started researching what I wanted to do with it. First I tried to add the decorative wood corner pieces along with a decorative wood scrolly thing (real technical name, huh?) for the center. Did a cool paint treatment and really loved it, just threw some wood glue on and glued them up there. They lasted about six months. Every month or so another decorative piece would fall off until all I had left was one corner piece and the middle thing. I then tried a paper bag wallpaper treatment that really worked well and, of course, was real cheap. After applying the paper bag wallpaper I mixed some brown paint with water and antiqued it. Then, let that dry and antiqued it with a black glaze. Looked absolutely fantastic but as it started to dry the paper bags started lifting off the wall. So, I finally r...
33 comments
Read more

A Quicker and Easier Way to Stepping Stones

Pin It This post came up in my memories feed from 2013 and as I was cleaning my yard up for Spring, I realized just how great these stepping stones still look six years later! So, yes I can still say: " However, my best project yet? Stepping stones. Now you might be wondering why this is such a big deal? I have wanted to put a stepping stone pathway from the gate to the backyard and back towards the patio/pool area for eight years. Eight looooong years. You wouldn't think this would be such hard thing to do now would you? But it was either the money (means about 15-20 stones which can get quite pricey), needing a truck or trailer to haul them, needing help to lift the suckers, or just life that got in the way."  Recently I read some articles about quick and easy stepping stones and it got me thinking that I could make that project quicker and easier by cutting a few corners. You won't believe how easy this was! 1. Buy a bag of Quikrete or regular ...
20 comments
Read more