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.