Rustic Barn Beam Mantle
I’m super excited to show you some major progress in our living room today. My husband bought me this gorgeous barn beam mantle for Christmas. and we finally got it hung over the fireplace. This fireplace is still a work in progress, and we plan on adding stone to the surround.
We bought this mantle off of a man in Uniontown, PA. He tears down old barns and makes things like this for people. I wanted something rustic, old, and natural to put over this fireplace. And this mantle is exactly what I envisioned!
You can read more on my blog about how we installed this mantle so that it was both stable and removable. We plan on taking it with us when and if we move. I wanted to maintain the natural look of this mantle, so after it arrived I did only two things to it. First I wiped it down good with Crown Low Odor Mineral Spirits, using a rag that does not shed. That cleaned it. After that was all dry, I wiped it down with three coats of Formby’s Tung Oil in a low gloss finish, again using a rag that does not shed. This deepened the richness of the wood, but did not change the color at all. It just brought out the beauty in the wood.
I love the rustic look of this mantle. It has so much character, which was exactly what this sad fireplace was lacking. Even in the unfinished state of this fireplace area, the mantle did a world of good.
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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