Mantle love

Well this weekend we were hard at work. Ryan continued to demo the outdoor kitchen, and also put up shelves in the laudry room! yay!!!

I worked on the mantle. again.
So, after preparing the tile behind the fireplace by priming 3 times (I think this picture is from the 1st coat)

and sanding the the mantle completly down, which meant taking off the old stain(s)... remember this house was built in the 1940's... so I think it's been painted and stained a few times.

I forgot to take a picture of it before I started, but here it is towards the beginning.

And, then voila!

This is a picture of Ryan attaching the detailed pieces. He also had to make and replace one of the "feet" because one side was beaten up and not to pretty.

 We both had a dark stain in mind... so Saturday night we couldn't wait to attack Mr. Mantle with the magic liquid!

Unfortunetly, we hated it. It's obvious that the stain didn't absorb evenly. sigh. We think this is because it had been stained and painted over so much in the past that there was still reminents of the old stuff, eventhough I had sanded for practically 2 days! So... enter plan B.

Paint it! Solution to everything, right?
We choose to reverse our color scheme, and go with the dark grey on the tile and white for the mantle. See the lovefest below.

This was the 1st coat of primer. Kind of a cool antique look right? (I will remember that for the future.)

                                                           And now look at him!

 I painted him four times; two coats of primer and two coats of Polar Bear White Behr paint.

Finished product:

We are in love.