Fireplace Mantle

When we moved into our home we realized that a lot of the upgrade options were overlooked by the previous owners. They left the walls white, opted out of overhead lights in the family room, living room and master bedroom, there was no mantle for the fireplace and they decided NOT to get a door for the master bathroom toilet. The walls being white was appealing to me because it felt like an empty canvas was awaiting me. As soon as we got the keys we painted the family room, kitchen and master bedroom before we moved everything in.

I love my house and all of the projects that I get to do because of the lack of upgrades. You may think I am being sarcastic, but I am not. It really has been fun for me. You can imagine my excitement when I decided to make myself a new fireplace mantle. Yep, you heard me right. I decided to make it.

That being said, here is our fireplace in stages. This is what it looked like when the previous owners lived there.  (It is the black box on the wall):

This is what it looked like after we painted and moved in:

and THIS is what it looks like TODAY!

I feel pretty proud of myself. It all started because I saw a shelf at the DI for $2 that was extra long. I immediately thought that it might make a good temporary mantle. So I bought it. Then I went to the Home Depot thinking I would just get wood to make some columns on either side of the shelf. When I brought  the wood home, I realized that I didn't really want to use the shelf anymore, so I designed this using "paint" on the computer. (don't be jealous of my awesome design skills. I know you especially love the family picture right? ha)

Now that I had a clear vision of what I wanted, I went back to the Home Depot again and bought the remaining paint and lumber that I would need.

I put the parts together as much as I could and then sanded and primed it. I chose a brown primer so that I could sand the black paint down and have the rich brown showing through. Then I painted it black. When it was dry I sanded it and assembled it.

I really like the way it turned out and feel pretty proud of myself (if you must know) Of course as soon as it was assembled I had to decorate it and there is no better way to decorate a mantle then with fall decorations. (See my candy corn?)

What do you think?