DIY Fireplace Makeover!

One of my favorite projects in casa de Harward has been my fireplace mantel. Please take a few seconds and see the drastic change. I still have some things I want to do to make it "Mine" but this is how it will stay for a few weeks I'm sure. This fireplace was really tricky because of the stone, I was unsure how to accomplish the task of making it look built in and fit the space. 

Here are some before pics as you can see this is the original fireplace with the brown stone. For some reason I didn't take a picture right before I started building the mantel so these will have to do. This pic was taken right before we bought the home 3 years ago.

I'm in love with the craftsmen look and the mantel had to be that style. I knew I wanted it nice and big to fit the spot and also somewhere that I could put a TV over top of it. The fireplace was the focal point of the room so why not make it a star. To start out of coarse I went to my favorite places Pinterest and YouTube to get some inspiration on how to accomplish building my mantel. I didn't stick to just one site or blog but I pulled a lot of inspiration and knowledge from all sorts of places.

So I started with a nice sturdy frame of 2x4's. I also took the opportunity to run electrical so I could place an outlet on the outside of the mantel for running lights for holidays and another box inside the mantel for powering the TV. 

Once the frame was built and anchored to the wall I started wrapping it 1/2 MDF

 I used 3/4 MDF for the top shelf.

I scribe'd the top of the mantel with a jig saw to fit nice and tight to the stone.

Adding the Trim design was next I used 3" strips of 3/4 MDF

I installed our "Gigantic" 32 inch TV to the fireplace thinking I was done but it just didn't seem to fit correctly. So I convinced my wife to let me prime and paint the stone. I used "Glidden Gripper" and then some Semi Gloss white paint from Lowe's called "Snowy Mount" to really make the piece look good. 

 Oh and to top it all off I won a 50" TV from my company Christmas party, I think it fits the spot a little bit better.

What I would like to do next is add some crown molding under the top shelf and possibly build some column legs under neath to finish it all off.

Tools I used:

Table Saw

Miter Saw

Jig Saw

Nail Gun

Drill

Sanders

Caulk Gun

Materials I used:

1 - 4x8 sheet of 3/4 MDF

1 - 4x8 sheet of 1/2 MDF

5 - 2x4" x 8'

1 - Box of 3" Screws