{DIY} come on baby light my fire

There’s a store about 45 minutes from here called Old Lucketts Store that I like to visit every few months.  My last trip was with The Girl and L, and although I didn’t come home with any purchases, I got a lot of inspiration for the ol’ future project files.

Last weekend with Husband away, I thought I’d head back out to Lucketts to see what was just in.  In particular, I was on a hunt to find…

…an old fireplace mantle (a la pure style home – she got this at Lucketts!)…

…and a big, ornate picture frame (a la Brooklyn Limestone)…

The idea is to attach an old fireplace mantle to one of the walls in our living room, mount the TV above it (with the wires running down behind the mantle), and frame it using a gorgeous frame like Mrs. L’s above, painted to match the wall.  We don’t have a fireplace in our townhouse, which always makes me a little sad when figuring out where to hang our stockings at Christmastime.  Plus, I just think this mantle/framed TV look would be fantastic in our living room!

Lucky for me, Lucketts had quite a few mantles in their outdoor salvage yard to choose from:

So which did I pick?!  Drumrolllllllll………..

Mantle #3, come on down!!!  Did I make the right choice?!?!?  I think yes.  Let’s talk this through.

• Mantle #1 – I reallyreallyreally liked the corbels on this one…but it was definitely rotted in places and would require a lot of work.  Plus it was a little more than I had wanted to spend.
• Mantle #2 – Oh my goodness, my heart skipped a beat when I saw this big boy hidden behind a stack of about 30 old doors.  The paint’s patina was absolute perfection and it had some pretty details.  But it was ENORMOUS.  No lie, like 7 ft wide.  There is no way it would (A) fit on my car, or (B) look like it even remotely fit in my house.
• Mantle #4 – This was tough.  I really liked how substantial the top was and liked the pillars on both sides.  But at $100 more than #3, it was a hard sell.  I’m still a little unsure about whether I should have gotten this one instead, but oh well – the deed has been done!

So why did I pick #3?

• Price tag – Yes, I know that price shouldn’t dictate everything, but when it was $100 less than the next closest, and I even liked it about the same as #4, it was hard to turn down the $79 tag looking me in the face!
• Details – I really liked the simplicity of the molding and how wide the top was.
• Alterable – The amount of wood putty required to fix some of the broken molding is really not much, and this mantle can definitely be cut down 6-9″ so it’s not quite so tall.  I might be able to add some simple molding at the bottom to finish it off a little.

The plan is to give the mantle a good sanding, make whatever fixes to the wood are needed, cut the legs a little shorter, perhaps add some additional molding at the base, and then paint it white.  Then we’ll mount it and the TV to the wall (and chuck the current TV console)!

What’s going to go IN the fireplace?  The jury’s still out on that one.  I could either…

…leave it open (like first inspiration pic way above)…

…or fill it with books with the pages showing out (so very Domino *sniff*)…

…or slice cross sections of logs and make it look like logs are stacked inside it…

…or maybe find a cool fireplace screen to put in front…

I’m just not sure yet.  Decisions, decisions.

Although the fireplace hunt was successful, I didn’t find a picture frame, so I’m still on the lookout.  All in good time.  I mean, looking at my project accomplishment rate (i.e., bathroom stencilling, bathroom wallpapering, etc etc etc), I have a few months to find the perfect one before the mantle is done. 

I want to share a funny pic of me getting this mantle home – yay for roof racks!  I definitely got some weird looks when driving home – this huge, old, GREEN fireplace mantle strapped to the roof of a little Volvo S40.  Ha!

So what do you think?  Was it a good find???

Tagged as: faux, fireplace, mantle