Before & After

One of my favorite pieces at JunkFest this year was a faux fireplace mantel that I "rehabbed" from it's original state. The mantel was pretty much already assembled and in place as a faux fireplace. It was just really ugly and in need of a facelift. You may recall from earlier posts that I'm a bit forgetful when it comes to taking "before" pics of anything. I did happen to get one shot of it before I tore it apart.

There she is, in all her fake brick beauty. She was actually sitting on a hearth made of those very same realistic looking bricks, but I decided to leave them behind. It was work enough just wrestling the fireplace away from the wall, what with the 40 or so 6" nails it was secured with! Okay, there were only 2 nails, whatever. I removed the top trim pieces so that I could re-use them, but had to cut a new top...one that would be deep enough to accomodate the most fabulous vintage corbels that my father-in-law found for me (yay Ed! keep it comin'!)

After much color contemplation, I decided to do a white/stain overlay finish. First, I primed the entire piece with Kilz spray primer. I was liking how it looked so far, but it needed some extra "oomph" so I took apart an ornate little side table and used a piece from that to adorn the panel below the mantel shelf. Here she is primed and painted with flat white paint. Just needs a good sanding and staining for that time-worn look.

This last picture is the best "after" shot I had, and it was taken the morning of JunkFest...just before the madness began. I used a vintage chippy mirror in the insert and some ornate gold frames on top of the mantel. I was secretly hoping that no one would want her so I could bring her back home with me! But, shortly after the sale started, she was going out the door and headed to a new home. Oh well, lesson learned! Just so someone gets to enjoy her!

Check back soon for our very first give-away! And no, it's not a fireplace mantel...sorry!