We are lucky enough to have two fireplaces in our house - one wood-burning in the living room and one gas in the family room. Soon after we moved into the house, we covered the blackened and dated brick fireplace in our living room with a tile and wood paneled fireplace surround and mantle. Fast forward 6 years later and we are nearing completion on our addition. Instead of having our builder finish every last detail, we decided to save a few projects for ourselves so we could put our own stamp on our beloved renovated house. The new mantle was one of those projects.
Here's the BEFORE (after our builder was basically done) -
Then, Jim asked me what I wanted it to look like and I told him I wanted the same as our living room. I think he was a little surprised (and super happy since he had already knew what he was getting into!). So, we set out to mirror the same details A little tile work both on the hearth (level with the hardwood floors) and surrounding the gas fireplace, some thin plywood and some small picture frame moldings and we had a great after.
Pretty impressive I think. Jim really makes some amazing stuff happen in our house in a weekend or two (much more on that later)! I had no part in it other than the basic design and some caulking and painting.