Mantel Is Up!

Yes, it is! It's finally up! Up and decorated and functional!

It's sooo exciting!

This wall, right here. Remember that? That big, boring, blank gray wall. No visual interest. Nothing to look at. Nothing but childrens' chairs. I lived with it blank for 3 years and gray and blank for all of summer.

Then we taped up an outline of a mantel to see where the studs were and height we wanted, etc. This covered this wall for 2 weeks. 2 weeks of a taped mantel outline.

Then I got tired of waiting and decided to do the chalkboard paint and let the kids have at it. Why not? At least now it's functional. And something a little bit more to look at.

Then Friday night, 2 nights before the birthday party, the real visual work began...

 Then Saturday night the exciting work began... The actual mantel part was going up!

Isn't my dad awesome? There was a lot of behind the scenes work for this baby to get up. Lots of planning, cutting, sanding, and then I did 2 coats of paint while dad worked on the mantel part which was a lot more cutting and sanding. Then I had to do 2-3 coats of paint on that plus drying time in between.

Phew.. I'm exhausted typing that!

But the final product was completely worth it. Don't you think?


                      Before:                                                                      After:

And my window mirror with burlap wreath fit perfectly up there.. just like I planned!