Faux Wood Beam Mantle

Well, well, well. What do we have here? More wood! AWE YEAAAHHH. Everybody needs a little wood in their life, right? (Come on, you had to have known from the title of this post and the entirety of this one that you were gonna have some middle school boy jokes.)

Just a disclaimer: These pics were taken prior to our decision to even have a blog, so not only are they bad, they’re like extra regular bad, but you already knew that. Let’s move on.

Using the same wood that we used for our cased openings in the aforementioned post, we created ourselves a rill big mantle. Basically it’s a 3 sided hollow box screwed into brick. Did you guys know you can screw things in to brick? YOU HAVE TO USE SO MUCH STRENGTH AND SUCH A GIANT DRILL BIT.

First we he measured from the top of the opening to the fireplace to where the crown molding will be (one day Lord willing and the creek don’t rise and I don’t pass in my elderly years). He also factored in the size of our TV that will be mounted there.

Let me stop this blog post right now and point out that I put up a FIGHT because I did NOT want a TV over the fireplace. DID NOT. I put on boxing gloves and rented a ring from a guy named Carl and put on one of those cape things and hired someone to massage my shoulders in the corner while reminding me what I was fighting for.

And I was defeated.

(Okay, maybe I fabricated parts of that story, but only parts.)

To create the inside of the hollow box, Jordan cut 3 pieces of 1x10x8 lumber to the width we wanted, which in our case was about 9 inches. There was probably more math than that, but alas, it is I (the wife) writing this.

“wook! daddy make me a chair!” – child pictured in photo

After making the hollow box, he then cut square pieces for each end a la the photo below.

yup. she has on one house shoe. it’s real over here, people.

Now, here’s where it gets real. He hung this to the brick with screws, yes, but he also created what’s called a French cleat. Look. Ain’t nothing French about us. We’ve never been there, we occasionally eat the dressing on our salads, and if you asked me before this project, I would have told you that French cleats were something you wear when you play soccer in France, but that is apparently not true.

this is inside the top of the mantle; the other part of the cleat

We He hung a 2×4 stud in the wood that was cut at a 45 degree angle. Then he cut this piece of wood that was attached on the inside of this beam that was cut at the opposite 45 degree angle, which is what I’m trying to show in the picture above. I know none of this probably makes sense, but let’s be real, everybody who reads this has my number. Just text me and I’ll explain if you really need to know.

That’s really it, guys! This was definitely a project we completed in a day, even with a helpful busy tot running around. So, that was a win! Our final dimensions are 9 3/4″ tall (?) by 68 1/2″ long by 9 1/2″ deep.

You know, my hope is that the grainy, terrible quality photos in this post really bring out the greatness and ease of this project, whilst keeping you around for more.

Here’s how this breaks down if you’re interested:

Cost + Supplies: (Some affiliate links are provided)

Ruler
Wood glue
Skillsaw (Per our previous post about our cased openings, we borrowed it, but for pricing, this is what we are borrowing
Faux wood paneling – Honestly, since we already had these left over from our last project, this part was free for us, but they’re $19.68 + tax and you’ll only need one.
(1) 2×4 stud – You should only need one of these and they’re super cheap! $3!
(3) 1x10x8 – We got ours at Home Depot. Should run you about $18 a piece.
Nail gun – We use this Ryobi one.
Lessons to write better DIY posts for in the future – Currently in search of a teacher who will work for hugs and really sweet GIFs being text to them daily.

Cost for us:

Honestly, $60-ish + tax here, guys! Ha! Maybe with all the money we saved from not getting actual reclaimed lumber, we can invest in some better photo quality, AMIRITE?!

Minimum Total Investment:

$25+ but again, this depends on what supplies you have on hand. Being kind to people with tools you don’t have, especially in the beginning can go a long way. You catch more honey with bees or something, right? Bees with honey? IDK. Who keeps allowing me to use the internet?

Would we do this again?

Sure but like, we only have one fireplace.

On to the next project for us to take from gross to grandiose….

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