Get the mix on the Clayson six: the mantel

Book club was last night and it was really fun. We read "A Painted House" by John Grisham. Great book. Go read it. We talked about it then watched the movie. Super fun!

I completed my goal of having the mantel done and prettified by book club night. YAY!

I've wanted to do this for years and I LOVE IT!

Another shout-out to Brock and Kurt ~ thank you for your help!

Here we go, from beginning to end.

Before:

this is me being brave and digging in and realizing I'm in way over my head...

Another before shot:

After Brock came to my rescue and took the wall off:

Putting in the new sheet rock...

A couple weeks of mud, sanding, more mud, more sanding...

Next came the texturizing and painting... no pics of that.

My vision was to frame in what was already there, add molding and paint. Easy enough, right? The walls were not even so we had to make some adjustments...

Lots of measuring and cutting...

Out comes the nail gun... oh ya. It's the funnest tool ever.

For the front pieces I wanted a routed edge. I had to find a pretty router bit, and learn how to use the router! But ya, I'm a router now. : ) I'm mad I didn't get any pictures of me routing - it's a MESS! I was covered head to foot in wood shavings but it's oh-so-pretty.

Lot's of caulking and starting to add molding...

I sanded and filled and sanded again the top piece. Here it is going on... lots of leveling.

I got the bottom molding on, cut it and everything. I'm so proud : )

Ok here is the crown molding all installed. It took about 4 hours. I've decided crown molding is a test of marriage. We did good and got along the whole time, but it's tricky business. We had to change the angles so that made it way more difficult but it's on and it's gorgeous!