Fireplace Mantle and Built in Bookcase - Finally Complete

Our 1970's fireplace, while nice was lacking one thing. A mantle, it had a ledge, but it was only 4 inches in depth. Not really large enough to put anything on and quite the fire hazard if we actually hung stockings for Christmas.

This is the original fireplace before we bought the house

We pulled out the old insert as it was really ugly and didn't work that well to begin with. We then built a mantle using lumber and construction adhesive that withstands heat. We insured that the wood was at least 6 inches from the opening of the fireplace as required by code.

Mantle complete

The mantle is now 12 inches in depth so we can actually put things on it and hang our stockings.We decided that built in bookcase and firewood storage would be needed to complete it.

Building the bookcase

We made a frame for the bottom to fit the odd size next to our fireplace. We then used wood screws to attach the sides and top.

Painting the back

We then cut brackets to support the shelves and screwed those to the frame. We then cut the shelves to size and slid them right in.

With Shelves

We plan on building the firewood storage box on the other side soon and paint it all white once it's build. We will then put black granite tile on the bottom and glass mosaic around the fireplace to complete. We may paint the brick a light color to spruce up the dingy brick.

Our plants love their new home

Update: We finally primed the wood and will be painting them with white semi-gloss Sherwin Williams trim and door paint.

We finally finished the entire project. We wanted to paint it but were unsure how to. We found this product called Brick-a-New but it was expensive and we weren't too sure how well it would work. We decided on doing something of our own. First we laid some ceramic tile in front of the hearth to allow for a nice flat screen instead of the folding type. We then used firebox paint to paint the inside and the surround to protect the brick and to stop it from getting burn and soot mark.

Adding the tile

Firebox and surrounded all painted

We were still deciding what to do to the brick and we stumbled upon this post from Lowe's. We bought several drop cloths to cover our new mantle and bookshelf.

We decided to use a different base paint color, we chose Asiago as the base which is an off white.

Base color

We then cut sponges to the size of the brick and got them a bit damp. The color we decided for the brick was Smoky Oyster. We dipped it in the paint and dabbed it to ensure not too much was on it. We then applied it to each brick.

Applying to each brick

It didn't take very long to do each brick. Once complete, we finished it off with the remaining trim. It's amazing to see the before and after. We finally brought our fireplace to this century.