Confession: I'm sleeping with my handy man. So when he asked me what I wanted for my birthday I jokingly requested that the old fireplace be covered with a great-big, new, mantel. One trip to the local home improvement store, and four hours later the only thing left to do was paint. Aaamaaazing! Generally I come up with a design and Jayson (my resident-handy man/husband) builds it- but truth be told we banter the design back and forth and I don't think it would turn out as well without his input. In fact, every detail I leave out comes right from his head- ad-lib building! The plan for this one: clean lines, vertical columns from top to bottom to make the ceiling look taller, and a large enough span on the cross-beam to play off the width of the room. "Yes, please! we'll take that, all of it!" The mantel is 8' tall and 8' wide; nice and chunky! The color is Black Fox by S.W. its a warm, deep gray with a hint of brown. We painted the brass louvers on the fireplace black with heat resistant flat spray paint. I might miss that brick rainbow, but probably not! I am however leaving the hearth bricks for now because they remind me of the fireplace in the house I grew up in. There's nothing wrong with a little nostalgia right!?
Glass tiles surround the insert. The mosaic mirror plays off the chandelier in the adjoining dining room. The trim around the cross-beam was laser-carved with a decorative leaf design; We lined the design with an off-white paint pen and rubbed it with stain to create an aged look.
