Remember my “Magical” Christmas Mantel post where I said I redid the mantel three times before I was happy with it? Well, it’s four times now. It’s a sickness. I can’t help myself. 😉 THIS is the final mantel.
The Bell Garland came from my friend CereusArt. Check out her Etsy shop for really cool coastal decor accessories and beach themed gifts!
Linking to: 
I have been working on my fireplace “backsplash” all week. It’s finally finished! It was pretty easy, inexpensive, sometimes a little frustrating, but the end result, according to my hubby, who was out of town during the whole construction, is “quite impressive!” 🙂
Here is my boring wall before.
I measured the boards to the size I wanted, mitered the corners, and taped everything to the wall to get an ideas of what it would look like.
You don’t need to miter the corners, but since I love my power tools, I went ahead and cut the corners this way.
Alway use a level! And often! Levelness is happiness. 😉
I used small nails and Loctite All Purpose Adhesive Caulk to attach the wood to the wall. May be unconventional to use caulk, but I did not want to use wood glue in case I change my mind someday and want to take it down. I asked my blogger friend at Pink Toes and Power Tools what she would do and she suggested the same thing. If I were to do this again, though, I would use a backer board of some kind (plywood, thin wood) and screw that into studs and then add the frame and moulding. Live and learn!
Here I added trim to the inside of each rectangle to give it a finished look. I decided, after I painted it (semi-gloss white), that it needed wide trim on the outside to make the backsplash look more substantial. After MANY trips to Lowes and Home Depot, I finally decided on window and door molding. It worked out great because it almost matches the trim on the windows. The wonderful thing about DIY is, that unless you blog about it as I do, nobody would know all the mind changes that went on. They would just think you are brilliant! Ha!
A tall view of the finished fireplace.
Finished! Just added some accessories for the picture. I will be spending days, I’m sure, rearranging the mantel a few hundred times!
The wood I used. I chose a higher quality of wood that didn’t have knots. The 1 x 4’s are on the outside frame. The 1 x 3’s are the two boards used on the inside of the frame.
The small trim was used on the inside of the frame. The white trim is the picture/door moulding I used on the outside of the frame. Of course the look is totally up to you. The options for trims and mouldings are endless.
Keep Reading…
The whole thing cost right around 50 dollars. It would have cost less if I used pine wood. Not too bad for a big impact!
This was an easy project, but I will confess that after I got the frame up, I realized it was off-center. It was level!! But not centered. So I had to take it down and scoot it over. And my walls, I found out, are not straight. They have a bit of a wave in them. So when the vertical boards went up, part of the wood touched the wall and part of the wood did not. And it was the walls, not the boards that are wavy. By the time I finished the project, I went through 3 tubes of caulk. Yes, people, caulk is your friend. It will cure what ails you. Or at least fill in massive gaps on the wall!
Anyway, just wanted to share that part with you as well. Don’t get discouraged if projects don’t turn out right the first time. Unless you knock down a wall, you can fix most anything. You and your friend caulk. One more thing… 😉
No EXCUSES… 😉
Linked to: 
Good morning! Today I’m reblogging the very first post I did more than a year ago. This is probably one of my favoritest projects to far. The headboard bench has been everywhere in my house since then, and now finally, it think it has found a permanent home on my recently updated porch. (When I say “permanent” that means maybe for the next six months or so!)
I have a couple more project in the works. We are having a “family weekend” this weekend, so they won’t be completed until next week. The project that’s really putting a pep in my step is updating my fireplace. I’m going to create an architectural backsplash (for lack of a better word) on the wall above the mantel, similar to the picture below. Woohoo! I love working with wood and power tools! 😉
My next project!!
HEADBOARD BENCH (revisited)
(from May 2, 2011) This headboard started out in life as a rejected bunk bed headboard found in a dumpster. I first used it as a twin headboard for my son when he got his first “big boy” bed. (Shhh… that was many moons ago!)
Using 1 x 4’s, I build a the sides and front of the bench and attached it to the headboard with wood glue and L-Brackets. And as you can see, I used tape to clamp the pieces together while the glue dries. Real clamps would have been ideal,,, but you make do with what you have. : )
I bought the legs from Lowes and attached them with wood glue and screws. I had to haul the bench into the house because my garage floor is not level! Couldn’t figure out why my bench was teetering. I’m going to have to do something about that unlevel floor. I’m not sure my hubby will be happy with me turning the sunroom into a workshop.
The seat was made from 3 pieces of 1 x 6 wood. I counter sunk the screws and puttied and sanded the wood smooth.
I primed and painted the bench with a brush. I’m sure spray paint would have worked great, but I used what I had on hand. The edges were lightly sanded for a distressed look. Now this old headboard has a new useful life as a bench and a new home in the foyer!
This may have been one of my favorite projects so far. (And it doesn’t hurt that my dad was very impressed with it. Still means a lot even when you’re not a little girl anymore!) : )
House of 34 