Mantle Madness!

My husband and I have been the proud owners of a cute custom home for 6 years this June.  Lately, we have been doing several (and I mean several) projects to update and personalize our home.  It's something we've been needing to do for a while and the anticipated arrival of our first born son, it was just enough to kick us into gear and get the ball rolling on these projects.

First up on the list: the mantle!  We have one of those fireplaces built into the corner of our living area and the mantle that was originally on it was awful!!  For some reason the previous owner thought it would be cute to glaze it, not the cute way most people glaze their kitchen cabinets, no she had so much glaze on there it almost looked stained. 

One weekend while I was away my husband painted it white for me and it looked much better!

Don't worry I had it decorated, this picture was taken right before it was torn down.

Now as you can see on the right I have windows, this created a big problem as to how we could get a new mantle to fit if we extended it around the corners of the wall it's on.  But my brilliant father figured out a way!  This friends is why it's a perk to be the daughter of a man who is an insanely talented carpenter/trim and cabinet builder!

Good riddance!!

Now it was time to get a template built and get all the little extras I wanted.

The trim

My dad got to work building the template and put it together, then took it over to my house to see if it fit...

(Sorry for the blur)

Now that we know it fits, the extras need to be added!!

It even looks beautiful without paint!

All mounted, painted and decorated!

The detail:

I think it turned out great!!  Thank you daddy! 

We have alot more updates to do and I will be sure to keep you all updated on them!