We woke up to snow this morning...ugh...snow it begins. Honestly, when we moved north I was completely prepared for colder winters with lots of snow, I just wasn't prepared for earlier winters with crazy amounts of snow. Nothing like a little extra 'challenge' mixed into to the One Room Challenge. The silver lining was the look on my boys faces when they saw the snow, my oldest screamed "we get to make snooowballs!" (kids are the best).

Well, it's week 4 of the One Room Challenge. Are you following along? Be sure to check out the participants progress here the guests participants here. Also, to catch up on my work to-date you can visit Week 1&2, Week 3 here.

This week I decided to tackle my fireplace mantel.


When we bought the house the fireplace in the living did not have a mantel which made our over-sized fireplace look dated (and the curved edges didn't help). Here is the before pic.


My plan was to basically make a cap for the fireplace, like a little wooden hat. I took measurements of the top and sides and set off to my local hardware store. I picked out my wood (2 pieces of 12" barnboard for the top, and 3 pieces of cedar for the sides). I had the wood cutter at the store cut them exactly to size (this was too big a job for my little mitre saw). I brought them home and simply glued it together with carpenters glue and held it in place with some clamps and boxes.




After it set I nailed it together. Looking back I guess I could have nailed it together right away.



Finally I filled the nail holes with wood filler and stained it using Minwax wood finishing cloths (per my previous post on staining - work like a charm yet again).


 Placed the wooden mantel on top of the fireplace and secured it with a few screws.


Well that's done. Now I just need to decide wall and fireplace paint colours.

 

Stay tuned. We're getting there.