Fireplace Oak Mantel and Marble Tile Remodel - Before & After

We started working on the mantel remodel in December after Ivy was born. Since then we've been busy with raising a newborn and everything that comes with that. 

On the weekends, I've been slowly chipping away the tiling portion of this job. Admittedly, the project took longer than I'd like, but I took my time getting everything updated since I'd never tiled before.

We started with refinishing the hearth. The old bricks tiles popped out fairly easily and I didn't have to cut too much tile for the job. I also spent a lot of time preparing the different brick surfaces for tile by coating them in thin set, which was a lot like floating joint compound.

Photos below document my progress from mantel pre and post tile.

Finished mantel before we tiled. Looks pretty good, probably could have stopped here if we had to.

Hearth was step one. You can see I dry fitted everything before laying the tile. The bricks are white from thin set.

The top row was a skinny long cut, so I just had Lowe's make a bunch of these tiles to save me the work.

This Old House recommended starting the vertical tiles across the top, with a ledger strip to guide the tiles across.

Pulled off the ledger guide and ready for the verticals strips.

I taped together my sections so the tiles stayed together.

Labeling helps keep things in order (A,B,C)

Tiles glued to wall, after grout.

Detail of finished job.

I repainted the cavity black - it has this empty clean feel now. 

Becca found the perfect side table and bird to complete the design.

Viola! Job is done - 4 months later - yikes. What do you think?

Our Fireplace Mantel Remodel

With three weeks off this Christmas break, I decided to update our mantel with some additional woodwork. We've been meaning to tackle this for a while, and a cold winter break served as the perfect motivation to get started.

This is what our fireplace looked like originally. Lots of brick, not much visual interest or style in my opinion.

Here was my initial idea for the design and future tilework.

A little more design tweaks with regards to trimwork and future fire source. Planning on red oak to match the top part, and stain it all chocolatey brown.

Notching inside face of wood to make room for bricks at bottom of fireplace. The bricks stuck out 1/2'' at the bottom, and I'd rather notch the wood than grind the brick.

Chisel knocks out the wood.

Sanded smooth, and fits.

Placed them over the bricks to confirm fit. I was able to find some nice 1 x 10" red oak that had an interesting grain pattern for the dominant leg/column pieces.

Wood on sides of fireplace needed special fitting to work around baseboards. I used a trim profile tool to trace the profile, and a jigsaw to cut it out. This was a pain in the butt, but working around existing trimwork is a skill I'm having to learn as a remodeler. I think getting a multi-tool would make my life easier.

Adding cross piece and more test fitting. I used tongue and groove joinery to make the pieces fit together.

Panel boards added for final test. Plus Jeopardy.

Stain added, pretty happy with overall look.

Next up, tile work.