Using a Salvaged Mantel in a Renovation

When I renovated my teeny tiny hovel on the Cape, I decided that a fireplace would be just the ticket!!!!!

Not to toot my own horn or nothin' but

 I am the master of shoving a lot into teeny tiny spaces.....

As I told you guys in a previous post, I scoured different salvage yards to find things for this project.

I sometimes have specific items in mind that I search for,

 but many times I stumble across things that tickle my fancy.....

and I want to use them.....

and I scrunch up my eyes and think real hard.....

where can I stick this???????

Sooooooo.....

that is what happened when I found this mantel.

Boston Globe Design Magazine

It is a Tudor style, probably from a house built in the early part of the 20th century.

It was dark stained wood when I found it.

I thought that painting it white would transform it and give it more of a beachy cottage feel.

I tucked it into the wall that backs up to the kitchen and bathroom, enabling me to create a seating grouping that was centered on the hearth.

 Decorating Magazine 

Since I had two different magazines publish this house, we had to style it differently for each one, although we shot them both on the same day.

For The Boston Globe Magazine, we shot it way I usually had it.

The pair of silver fishes are actually some kind of place card or menu holder as they have slots in the tops of their backs.

For Decorating Magazine, we used the set of china coasters I had, and set them in a row along the mantel shelf.

We also changed the plants in the mismatched cache-pots.

I like to use things that are mismatched.

I think it keeps designs from looking too set and staged.

The candle holders on either side of the picture were wonderful as they also held plates.

The plates I used were part of a set of pink shell dishes that were a gift from my sister-in-law, Faye.

The watercolor was painted by the same artist that did the picture over the sofa.

I had it framed with glass that was non-reflective and filtered out the harmful rays of the sun.

You may remember this painting.....

I gave it to my niece Miriam and her hubby Ross for their living room.

This has been accessorized more since the last time I showed it to you guys, but that's another story on another day.....

I don't know why I have another shot of the mantel from a different angle, but since I had it, I decided to show it.....

When I designed this fireplace, I wanted it to look as traditional as possible, even though I was using a modern fireplace insert.

These inserts have a raised firebox, and I did not want to do a raised hearth.

For one thing, I don't like them.....

and for another, there was no room in the floorplan.

Sooooooo

I did what I always do!!!!!

I faked it!!!!!

I clad the face of the metal box with smooth black slate, and treated it with a traditional hearth.

Using a black facade with no sheen, creates the illusion of the firebox being part of the whole unit, not floating off the floor like it does when people clad these boxes with a lighter material like marble or lime stone. 

To the right of the fireplace is the kitchen.

I separated it from the living room with a half wall that terminated in newel posts. 

The posts were the same style as the ones I had built for the railing on the loft.

The amount of conversation that was required with the builder to get him to make the simple posts was really annoying.

Who knew I would end up dating him?????

On that note,

Latah, Gatah