One Update at a Time

So Andrew and I have been unpacked since the weekend that we moved into our lovely new home at the end of August and the nesting process has been in full swing! We've tackled our first bits of yard work, hired a painter to redo our living room/kitchen/entry way/hallway/dining room and a spare bedroom, had our lovely fireplace serviced and now the fun begins! We're not only nesting, but we're slowly starting to make some updates to make the home ours! 

We had our living room painted a light gray (gray is my favorite color!) and we have white trim and a white ceiling so I thought adding a white mantel would make the fireplace a bit more cozy!

Before (We will be changing the green tile soon too)

So I looked at home improvement stores all around my area, including Lowe's, for a mantel and they were surprisingly hard to find! I eventually found one on Home Depot's website and ordered it unfinished. But first, I measured the length of my fireplace to see how long my mantel should be and decided on getting a 72" mantel. 

Next, I researched what type of paint and primer I would need to successfully cover poplar wood. I found a primer at Sherwin Williams that I LOVE! The Premium Wall & Wood Primer was the absolute best! It dries quickly, covers easily without gooping up and it was awesome. I bought 1 gallon and definitely didn't even put a dent in it, even after 5 coats of primer. The primer dried in about 20 minutes so I was able to do 5 coats of primer in one evening, which was ideal for a working woman! I loved the way the primer covered so much that I ended up returning the gallon of white paint I bought to go over it. 

The mantel we bought didn't come with hardware, unfortunately, but it was nonetheless easy to hang. It came with a skinny board that was 5 'x 1.5" x 1.5" that gets mounted to the wall first with screws (we used 4.75" screws to assure security to the wall) and then you set your mantel on the skinny board and screw down (we used 1.75" screws). 

Here's our finished product!
(You can see us testing out the stone we're going to upgrade to
on the bottom right, but that's another post for another time!)

The mantel adds such a homey and warm feel to the living room and adds more space for decorating. We can't wait to spend our first fall and winter in our beautiful home and lights fires in the fireplace! 

Happy Living & God's Blessings!

J.M.