For anyone who has been to our house, you are familiar with the huge brick fireplace chimney in the living room. For anyone who hasn't been to our house, it's floor to ceiling brick - and the ceilings in our living room are 24 feet tall. So it's a fairly dominating structure.
Of course, a fireplace needs a mantle. And a fireplace that large should really have a mantle that's not wimpy. Ours, however, was the most pitiful, pathetic little thing - it would look small on a "normal" fireplace. It looked ridiculous on ours.
But we lived with it. It always seemed that we had other things to do with our money. Priorities, priorities. Not to mention that "substantial" mantels are not exactly cheap!
Early on, when the kitchen project was still in the design phase, we looked at all kinds of trim and crown molding. I just happened to be thinking out loud about how some of the trim pieces would look great on a mantel. That put the designers creative mojo on overdrive. And the next thing you know, we had every piece of trim out on the table designing a mantel!
We picked out the same crown that is used in the kitchen, some den til trim that we have on several pieces of furniture, and the same light/char rail that we used in the kitchen. And today, Joe from Southern Kitchen came over to put it all together. It only took 2 minutes to get the old one off - but it took several hours for Joe to "custom" make the new one and get it hung.
And I have to say - it looks fantastic. It's so much better than the old one! It's much bigger. We can actually put things on it and they don't look like they are getting ready to fall off. It also doesn't lean to the left or tilt forward. It's actually level in all directions!
I took some pictures - but they really don't do it justice. You'll just have to drop by the house and see it for yourself!
The new mantel...
...custom made! Pictures really don't do it justice...
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